Acherontia Atropos
by Katsu
Summary: An alternate universe, where Duo finds out that everything he ever learned from Dracula movies was WRONG (warnings for bad language, violence, shounen ai)
1. Prologue

Acherontia Atropos: Prologue  
  
Let me bring you up to speed, kid...  
  
There was a time when I thought things couldn't get more complicated. Yeah, right. Shows   
  
you how much I knew. That was when I had been first introduced to my new partner; a   
  
weapon of mass destruction that I am now firmly convinced is at least as intelligent as me,   
  
even if it's good at playing dumb. That was when I'd first come to Earth, the dying, venomous   
  
gasp of the civil war between those born on the ground and those born in space. I was up to   
  
my elbows in blood, but at least it was human. That was when I first discovered that I was in   
  
love with my other partner, the human one - and he just happened to be a guy. I really did   
  
think that was as complicated as it could get. More fool me.   
  
It's a bad sign when I can look back on my days of guerilla warfare with fondness and   
  
nostalgia, because that was the time before I knew about the world in the shadows; unnatural,   
  
inhuman, illogical. Ignorance really is bliss - trust me on that one.  
  
Like everyone else, I used to believe that there was no such thing as magic, that the monsters   
  
under the bed or the things that went bump in the night weren't real, or would at least have the   
  
good taste to turn into dust when the light hit them. Yeah, it was naive of me, but what could I   
  
do. In a world where we all had to kill and constantly run to survive, my conviction in a solid   
  
world kept me going.  
  
Then I learned everything that I'd been taught about science and logic wasn't worth the paper   
  
it'd been written on. Hey, the people that wrote the books lived wearing the same willful   
  
blinders as me. Can't say that I blame them. Still, it doesn't mean I have to like the weltering   
  
cesspit of weirdness my life has become.   
  
A year ago, Oz crushed the last vestiges of resistance in the colonies, and we were forced to   
  
go under ground for good. In that final, bloody battle, my human partner - Heero - died,   
  
destroying his Gundam to give the rest of us an opening to retreat. I can still remember the   
  
way the explosion turned the entire world sickly green as the heavy isotopes in its reactor   
  
caught. Nearby villages were flattened by the shockwave.   
  
Until that point, my life had been going along as well as could be expected, considering I'd   
  
been turned into some sort of guerilla freedom fighter at the tender age of fifteen. I'd managed   
  
to convince myself that I'd just liked Heero, or maybe just lusted after him a little - well, a lot,   
  
let's be honest - but I hadn't breathed a word in the interest of self-preservation. I just wasn't   
  
certain what to do; me, the king of improv, caught flatfooted at every turn. Loving another   
  
man just didn't jive with anything I'd ever been taught, so I held back and tried to muddle   
  
through things on my own.   
  
I found out the hard way that day, half-blinded by the glory of that explosion, that what I felt   
  
for Heero wasn't like or casual lust. If my feelings had been that simple, losing him would've   
  
hurt, sure, but not the way it hurt me. When I lost Heero, I lost a part of myself that I hadn't   
  
even been aware of. Shit, I know it sounds all mystical when I say it like that, but I can't think   
  
of a better way to describe it. When Heero died, I wasn't just devastated. I was dead too.  
  
So, I did some stupid things. Thank God that the rest of the guys were being a hell of a lot   
  
smarter than I was.  
  
Then that psycho hose beast Relena managed to get a hold of Heero's body - a testament, I'd   
  
like to note, to the sheer armoring of a Gundam's cockpit - and decided to throw a huge,   
  
dramatic funeral service. Naturally, the remaining four of us crashed it. I wasn't feeling real   
  
rational at that point - I ran up to the coffin, shoving people out of my way, and grabbed   
  
Heero's body. Now here's the part where things really took a turn for the bizarre - I started   
  
saying something, some sort of mystic hoodoo thing that no one can remember no matter how   
  
hard they try. The security cameras all blanked out, and not even I have a clue as to what   
  
happened. For me, it was like remembering a tiny piece of something long forgotten. But   
  
anyway, I started saying all the weird stuff, and then I kissed the corpse on the lips - and   
  
here's the REALLY fucked up part -  
  
HE OPENED HIS EYES!  
  
I tell no lie. He started breathing again, his heart was beating, and he was alive. It was like   
  
something out of those old fairy tales, except the problem was, everyone knows that stuff isn't   
  
really supposed to happen!  
  
Not that I was objecting. God no. The instant Heero opened his eyes, it's hard to describe, but   
  
I wasn't alone. Not any more. I was a whole person again, and I had the pathetic shreds of my   
  
sanity back.   
  
That night, Heero and I slept together. No, not sex or anything. We just went to sleep in each   
  
other's arms. I'd never felt so good in my entire life. Heero and I haven't touched each other or   
  
done anything beyond the boundaries of friendship since, though. It's driving me nuts, but I'm   
  
not going to push my luck. I already lost Heero once, and it almost killed me. I don't want to   
  
go through that again.  
  
Other than that, things have gone back to normal. No one mentions what happened, I think   
  
because we're all too confused to deal with it. I could have been me, it could have been some   
  
kind of magic, it could have even been God, though sometimes I wonder if I can believe in   
  
Him any more. Who the hell knows. We regrouped and found ourselves a comfortable little   
  
hole to hide in and lick our wounds while we waited to see if we've ever even get orders   
  
again. Our luck with that ran out about four months ago - we started receiving coded   
  
transmissions from the various scientists that trained us, urging us to continue the fight, to   
  
weaken Oz on the earth. All I can guess is that the mads are optimists.  
  
It wasn't like we had anything better to do, though. So we picked up where we'd left off and   
  
found ourselves a school to hide in, which is where I am right now. No one suspects the   
  
innocent little students, right?   
  
Heero of course, is being, well, Heero. As if that's not bad enough.  
  
And right now, he's here, sitting at his scarred-up school issue desk, typing on that damn   
  
laptop of his. Wearing only a pair of crisp, white boxers, I'd like to note.  
  
Sometimes I think that I'm stupid for wondering if there is a God. It's pretty obvious that He's   
  
up there, and He's having a lot of fun making my life hell. 


	2. Part 1

Acherontia Atropos: Part 1  
  
I let out a soft sigh and stared at the tattered manga in my hands.   
  
It was a historical one this time, about a legendary sword guy   
  
that swore off killing. Interesting stuff.  
  
Not that I could concentrate on it. Hell no. How could anyone   
  
concentrate on anything when the object of all their lusts,   
  
embarrassing dreams and dirty thoughts was sitting not five feet   
  
away, clad only in a pair of thin cotton boxers. My life is just   
  
too damn hard sometimes - I should get put up for sainthood when I   
  
die.  
  
The room was completely silent except for the steady clacking of   
  
the keys of Heero's laptop. I and the other pilots had been to a   
  
lot of schools before in our travels, but this one took the cake   
  
as far as cheap, tiny rooms went. It was definitely something   
  
smaller than a breadbox. The two narrow beds in the room were   
  
practically side-by-side, and this time around, we had to share a   
  
desk. The bathroom, well, I didn't know what to compare it with.   
  
If I wanted to take my life into my hands and attempt to dry off   
  
in the bathroom and away from Mr. Perfect Soldier, I had to get   
  
into the shower to do it, or else risk falling over the toilet.   
  
About the only thing this prison cell of a dorm room had going for   
  
it was the fact that it was clean, new, and had some kick-ass   
  
wiring for my stereo system.  
  
Not that Heero ever let me turn the stereo ON when he was in the   
  
room.  
  
With another sigh, I put the manga on my face and let my eyes go   
  
unfocused. Heero just kept typing away, completely oblivious. Damn   
  
him. The silence stretched out longer and longer - funny how I   
  
hadn't noticed it until I thought about it - until I just couldn't   
  
take any more.  
  
"Hey, Heero."  
  
No answer.  
  
"Heero!"  
  
"Yes?"  
  
Hot dog. A response, and only on the second try. I was in business.   
  
I pulled the manga from my face, hoping that there weren't smears   
  
of ink on my nose, and sat up. "Whatcha lookin' at?"  
  
"Information on this school."  
  
I waited, just to see if he would elaborate on his own. No luck.   
  
"What kind of info?"  
  
Heero swiveled in his chair and fixed me with one of his glares.   
  
It was the kind of look you'd get from a wolf right before it   
  
decided if you were threat or food. A normal person would have   
  
gotten the hint and left him the hell alone. After dealing with   
  
him on a personal level for over a year, though, I'd gained some   
  
immunity. "Well?" I grinned at him.  
  
Heero snorted and turned his attention back to the laptop. The   
  
clicking started back up. "Nothing of interest," was his only   
  
comment.  
  
"Come on, Damnit, tell me! It's not nice to tease!" I jumped off   
  
of my bed and tried to look over his shoulder. For once, he let me,   
  
which made today something to mark down on the calendar. Some   
  
girl's school file was on the screen; picture, class schedule,   
  
pertinent information, uniform size, the whole shebang. "Why Heero,   
  
I never figured you for the voyeuristic type..."  
  
He ignored me. Just peachy. I leaned over his shoulder to take a   
  
better look at the file. Heero'd gotten a lot easier with casual   
  
touching ever since his - damn, I never knew what to call it -   
  
brush with death. So friendly touching was okay now. Most of the   
  
time. Anyway - the file. It belongs to one Kishiro Ayako.  
  
Ayako. Something about the name struck me as familiar. For a long   
  
moment, I just leaned against Heero, thinking. Oh yeah, Ayako was   
  
one of the girls in my class - good ol' grade eleven, class four.   
  
Quiet, unobtrusive, kept to herself and didn't hang all over me   
  
like most of the other girls, which was probably why I'd never   
  
noticed her much. I was too busy flirting with her friends. Me, an   
  
attention whore? Naw.  
  
Something niggled in the back of my mind about her. "Hey, she   
  
wasn't in class today, right? Why are you looking at her file?" It   
  
took me a couple minutes longer to realize it, but she hadn't been   
  
in class yesterday, either. As little as I knew about her, she   
  
didn't quite strike me as the type to just ditch class. The only   
  
reason I even thought of it was a combination of luck and a well-  
  
trained memory; the teacher hadn't remarked on her absence either   
  
day. Kind of sad when not even the adult supervision notices that   
  
you're gone.  
  
Heero still hadn't answered me. I could feel warmth rising from   
  
his body in waves, and it felt nice to be so close to him. Ain't   
  
it great how I like torturing myself? A half-hearted wave of   
  
suspicion formed in my brain. "You didn't do anything to her,   
  
right?"  
  
Heero snorted, again. Who says he doesn't have a sense of humor.   
  
"No," he said flatly. "I saw she was missing, just like you. Her   
  
dorm room has been cleaned out."  
  
"Changing schools?" That was a perfectly good explanation. People   
  
normally didn't to it midway through a term, but hey, if we could   
  
do it so could she.  
  
"No transfer order or explanation. Parents have been contacted,   
  
and they don't know anything about it. This has been reported to   
  
the police, but quietly."  
  
"Shit." Without think about it, I put a hand on his shoulder.   
  
There was something, almost like a jolt of what I'd felt a year   
  
ago when Heero'd come back from the dead. I snatched my hand away   
  
and sat back down on my bed, trying to keep my breathing at a   
  
normal level. Heero just looked at me from over his shoulder for a   
  
moment. Damn him and his lack of facial expressions. "So are we   
  
looking at a kidnapping?"  
  
"We aren't looking at anything," Heero stated. One key clicked,   
  
and the girl's file disappeared off the screen. Boom, gone. "I was   
  
curious."  
  
"Just curious."  
  
"Yes. If this is a crime, it's not our job to deal with it. We   
  
have other matters to attend."  
  
I shook my head, "Yeah, our job, right." I lay back on my bed for   
  
a moment. The manga scattered all over the blanket were square   
  
bumps along my back. "So she just disappeared. No struggle or   
  
anything. Room packed up neat as you please, ready for a new   
  
student."  
  
"That is not our concern."  
  
He sounded so goddamn dispassionate. It hurt, and I couldn't even   
  
begin to explain why. I wondered if he'd sound just like that and   
  
say the same things if I disappeared. It wasn't fair of me to   
  
think that of him, but as long as I'd been around Heero, I still   
  
hadn't the foggiest about how his mind worked. There had to be   
  
someone real under there, right?  
  
I growled at myself and rolled out of bed, standing to go to the   
  
door. I ended up almost nose-to-nose with Heero. He'd gotten up   
  
out of his chair, and I'd been so stuck on my own thoughts that I   
  
hadn't even heard him. Crap.  
  
For a long, long moment I found myself staring into those   
  
beautiful blue eyes of his. I felt like I was drowning in them.   
  
All I wanted to do, right then, was reach out and touch him. What   
  
came next, well, use your imagination.  
  
I could still hear that dispassionate voice talking about the   
  
missing girl, though, like he was observing that it was supposed   
  
to rain tomorrow, or that we were out of shoe polish. Suddenly, I   
  
just wanted to yell, or hit him, or do something, anything that   
  
would get a reaction.  
  
Instead, I grabbed my jacket and shoved past him, brushing against   
  
him a lot more than I really wanted to right then. "I'm going for   
  
a walk. I'll be back in a while." The door shut firmly behind me,   
  
cutting off anything that he might have said. Not that I really   
  
thought he was going to say anything.  
  
"Damnit," I muttered as I slouched down the hall. It was dark, no   
  
one was up, and I didn't have to worry about anyone seeing me   
  
looking abnormally pissed off. Further down the hall, a door   
  
opened, and yellow, buttery light spilled out across the floor. It   
  
definitely didn't go with my mood. I made myself smile, though, in   
  
case the room's occupant saw me.  
  
It was Wufei, the one guy I could never bluff. I grinned at him   
  
anyway, hoping that the expression reached my eyes.  
  
Wufei opened his door a little wider and leaned against the frame.   
  
It looked like he'd just gotten out of the shower - his hair was   
  
not in the usual ponytail, and tracks of water glistened on his   
  
chest. He was wearing a set of loose white pants - wearing them   
  
quite well, I might add.  
  
Wufei was great, probably the best friend I had. He was the one   
  
that cajoled, threatened, and talked me into promising to stay   
  
alive no matter what a year ago. Other than a little casual noting   
  
of how great his bod looked at times, he'd stayed strictly in the   
  
category of friend and nothing more, which was a relief to me. I   
  
didn't need another man complicating my life. One was enough for   
  
me, thank you very much.  
  
"Duo," he said quietly.  
  
I stopped in front of him, not stepping in the pool of light. Kind   
  
of like that little game some kids still played - not stepping on   
  
the cracks in the sidewalk. Yeah. Or maybe I just felt better   
  
being in the dark. "Yeah, man?"  
  
"I heard a noise. It must have been your door. What are you doing   
  
out here?"  
  
Direct as always. "Going for a walk."  
  
Wufei raised an eyebrow. "In the middle of the night."  
  
"Yeah. In the middle of the night. I didn't feel like being   
  
trapped in my room any more," /with him/. I didn't have to finish   
  
the thought aloud. We both knew who I was running from. Yeah,   
  
running. No better word for it.  
  
"You should just try talking to him, Duo."  
  
"We've been over this before, Wu. Not going to happen, because in   
  
some ways I'm just your run of the mill fluffy wuss. Besides, I   
  
don't think you want to have to pick up the pieces again."  
  
"True," Wufei smiled slyly. "I've had enough of your belly aching   
  
to last a lifetime. I don't need any more."  
  
"Jerk," I grinned at him. "Look, I'm just going to take a walk.   
  
I've done it before. I'll be careful. Death's honor."  
  
Wufei nodded, "If you need to talk about it..."  
  
"I know where to find your room. It's all good." I grinned at him   
  
and then started walking again, cutting right through the pool of   
  
light on the floor. See? Easy.  
  
"Without a doubt." I heard Wufei shut the door behind me.  
  
A couple doors later I was out of the school and slouching my way   
  
down the street. Sometimes I wished Wufei hadn't turned into such   
  
a good friend. He made me want to talk to him about stuff I was   
  
personally not ready to deal with - not that I'd EVER be ready.   
  
The good thing about him was he knew when it was important to push,   
  
and when he should just leave me the hell alone. He'd definitely   
  
made the right choice this time around.   
  
It was a nice night out, just edging its way toward spring - so,   
  
nippy enough that I needed the jacket, but not could enough to   
  
drive me indoors any time soon. I was skinny, okay? Getting cold   
  
easily went with the territory. I really wondered how Heero did it,   
  
sometimes, sticking with spandex even in the middle of winter. It   
  
made certain parts of my anatomy cringe just thinking about it.  
  
Damn. I had to stop thinking about Heero. I needed to relax, or   
  
else I'd never be able to get to sleep.  
  
The sky was totally clear, that special clarity you see only in   
  
the last few days of winter when spring's wrestling the year from   
  
its cold grip. I could see the stars like they went on forever,   
  
tiny little ice shards on blacktop. The moon was waving, about   
  
five or six days from full. It went with the rest of the night   
  
decor; some atmospheric trick had colored it a cool, soothing blue.  
  
I was starting to like the night more and more. When I was little,   
  
I didn't like it very much - not many kids do. I hated the dreams   
  
the most; they didn't bother me any more, though, because after   
  
dealing with them for years, nightmares start to lose their shock   
  
value. It wasn't just that, though. I'd been feeling more and more   
  
comfortable in the darkness, which was just as well. I was out   
  
walking most nights, trying to figure out where the hell my life   
  
was trying to go. Kiss or kill Heero, shit like that.  
  
Just walking was making me feel a lot better. I hated being   
  
trapped in that tiny room. Hyperactive, me? Or maybe just a little   
  
claustrophobic. Being trapped in an enclosed space while piloting   
  
was a little different from being trapped in an enclosed space   
  
when I wasn't doing much of anything. Maybe it was a control issue.   
  
Besides, Deathscythe was...himself. It's hard to feel   
  
claustrophobic when you feel like you're riding in the embrace of   
  
an old friend. Never mind the fact that you're killing people and   
  
blowing shit up at the same time. Details, details.  
  
I was rapidly approaching the line of trees that marked the edge   
  
of the school grounds. They lined the fence along the teacher's   
  
parking lot I was walking through. Occasionally, my foot kicked up   
  
a bunch of soggy leaves, sending them scuffling along the pavement.   
  
Time to turn around. I wasn't upset enough to take the trek   
  
through the woods to one of the crappy little bars; being on the   
  
ass edge of Tokyo wasn't doing a lot for my social life. No, I was   
  
only mildly annoyed, so I decided to turn around just as the   
  
skeletal shadows of the trees reached their fingers up to touch   
  
the moon.  
  
Four things happened in quick succession. The little gold cross   
  
that I always wore around my neck suddenly lit up like a halogen   
  
lamp, blinding me.   
  
I said, "What the hell?" mostly because I wasn't used to jewelry   
  
acting like that.  
  
There was a very soft sound, like a breath of wind moving the   
  
leaves, except there wasn't even a breeze. I started to turn   
  
around, but slowly, way too slowly.  
  
Something big, heavy, and very fast that smelled a little bit like   
  
snakes and a lot like blood hit me from behind and took me down to   
  
the ground, doing its level best to grind my head into the   
  
pavement.  
  
I tried to struggle against the thing on my back. Whatever the   
  
hell it was, it was stronger than anything had a right to be, even   
  
stronger than Heero when he's having a bad day. Nothing I tried   
  
moved the thing even the tiniest bit, and I knew I was no wuss.   
  
After about the third time my head got slammed into the pavement,   
  
I gave up struggling since it wasn't doing shit for me anyway, and   
  
just started screaming. I learned a long time ago that screaming   
  
is what you do when you're up to your neck in bad pucky and you   
  
don't have anything better to do with yourself. This situation   
  
definitely qualified.  
  
I couldn't fight the thing, and after my head contacted the ground   
  
for the fourth time, sparks started dancing in front of my eyes.   
  
The sound of blood rushing through my veins got so loud I couldn't   
  
even hear myself any more.  
  
Just another normal night on the town.  
  
Out of the corner of my eye, I caught a glimpse of a pale face   
  
with eyes glowing like blue flamed. I'd never been so afraid in my   
  
entire life. The thing - I didn't know what else to call it -   
  
looked down at me with those scary eyes and hissed. There were no   
  
other words to describe it. It hissed, like a pissed of cat or   
  
snake, and I caught a glimpse of teeth that would have been more   
  
at home in the mouth of a cobra than a human.  
  
A sharp blast of sound broke through the roaring in my ears. The   
  
creature's head just exploded. Its weight was abruptly gone from   
  
my back, and I dimly heard a second blast. Somehow, I lurched to   
  
my feet. I was spattered with blood, both mine and the thing's;   
  
there was warmth on my face and neck, rapidly cooling in the   
  
chilly air. My clothing was ripped to; things were a lot more   
  
ventilated than they used to be.  
  
At least I think that's how it went. At that time, I wasn't   
  
thinking all that clearly. My mind was sounding out one high, thin   
  
note of pure fear. When I got to my feet, I just there, swaying   
  
like a drunkard with blood and thicker things sliding slowly down   
  
my face. My vision was fading in and out, but I thought I saw a   
  
woman in the light of my cross that was barely taller than me. She   
  
stood with a shotgun in her hands like she knew how to use it, her   
  
mouth moving like she was trying to say something, but I couldn't   
  
hear a thing.  
  
Somewhere along the line, my hair had come partially out of its   
  
braid, and I picked something out of one of the loose waves that   
  
looked suspiciously like a piece of bone, right before I collapsed   
  
to my knees and everything went mercifully black. 


	3. Part 2

Acherontia Atropos Part 2  
  
The first thing that I did when I woke up was tried to open my   
  
eyes, which was a mistake. It was way too bright, and I felt like   
  
my head was going to explode. The second thing I did was mumble   
  
out something incoherent.  
  
"What?" Someone - I think it was Heero - said by my ear, very   
  
loudly.  
  
"I said," I stated much more clearly, "that I'm going to puke,"   
  
then rolled out of the bed I had mysteriously found myself in and   
  
did just that. Cool fingers helped hold my aching head up until I   
  
was done. Tears were running down my face, which normally would   
  
have pissed me off, but right then I hurt too much to care about   
  
dignity. I figured I didn't have much left anyway at that point,   
  
considering I'd just tossed my cookies in front of Heero.  
  
"Done now?" Heero asked, his voice soft.  
  
I tried to nod, which was a mistake. It set off another round of   
  
heaving. More tears squeezed themselves from my eyes. After the   
  
pounding in my head subsided enough for me to think coherently and   
  
my stomach stayed in place, I managed a weak, "Yeah."  
  
"I'm going to put you back in your bed now. Can you handle being   
  
moved?"  
  
I wanted to say no, I really did. I wanted to say 'Just kill me,   
  
please' but knowing Heero, he probably would have taken me   
  
literally. Though at the time, being put out of my misery would   
  
have been something of a relief. So instead, I said, "Roger."  
  
His only reply was, "Yes." For a moment, between head-splitting   
  
waves of pain, I thought I could detect a hint of concern in his   
  
voice. It was probably just the trauma of the situation.  
  
Strong, warm arms lifted me up like I didn't weigh anything at all   
  
and set me on softness that I was pretty sure was my bed. A thin   
  
little moan of pain escaped my lips.  
  
"Are you okay?"  
  
That had to be one of the dumbest questions I'd ever heard in my   
  
life. Even cutting Heero a little slack for not being used to   
  
conversing, it was still a dumb question. I laughed, very   
  
carefully so that my head wouldn't fall off. "Yeah, just peachy."  
  
"I can see that." A hand brushed my forehead. "You can't be too   
  
hurt if you're making jokes."  
  
I whimpered despite my own best efforts, and the hand withdrew.  
  
"Can you open your eyes?"  
  
"I'd rather not," I said, my voice strange in my own ears.   
  
"Open your eyes, Duo. We need to see if you have a concussion."   
  
Heero was being eminently reasonable and logical. And almost, well,   
  
nice. If I hadn't been in so much pain, I would have been   
  
suspicious. As it was, I didn't argue. I opened my eyes, and found   
  
myself peering right into Heero's from a very close ranger for the   
  
second time in one night.  
  
Heero looked really pissed, which was kind of funny considering   
  
how nice he was being. I shut my eyes quickly again, because it   
  
hurt too much to have them open. Silently, I prayed that whoever   
  
Heero was mad at, it wasn't me. When he was finally upset enough   
  
to show emotion, the pucky was deep indeed.  
  
"Your eyes aren't focusing properly," Heero commented. "You do   
  
have a concussion."  
  
"Right now, I just think it's nice that I have a head left to have   
  
a concussion with," I laughed weakly again. Yeah, that's me. Mr.   
  
Comedian. "How bad is it, doc?"  
  
"Concussion..." Heero's voice went all distant, like he was   
  
reading off a grocery list, "severe lacerations on your face and   
  
head. Contusions on your shoulders, back, chest, and arms. More   
  
lacerations on your back, but minor ones."  
  
"Funny," I said, "my head's the only thing that hurts." Of course,   
  
when I mentioned that, I was asking for it. My body turned into   
  
one massive ache, all of my injuries clamoring for attention.   
  
There's a lot to be said for blissful ignorance. "Can I have a   
  
pain killer, please?" I didn't even have to try to sound pathetic.   
  
Normally, I really didn't need the extra chemicals messing with my   
  
brain, but I was willing to make an exception.  
  
"Yes, soon," Heero said, "Wufei's raiding the school clinic now."  
  
"Oh...okay." It hadn't occurred to me until that point that anyone   
  
other than Heero would know I was hurt. But wait, how had he even   
  
known? "Uh, Heero?" I went over my last few memories carefully. No,   
  
no Heero in them, or anyone else I knew. Just the woman, whoever   
  
she was.  
  
"Yes?"  
  
"How did I get in here?" I cracked one eye open.  
  
"I carried you." Heero looked rather surprised. "You don't   
  
remember?"  
  
"Should I?"  
  
"You insisted that you were alright, and that I should put you   
  
down and let you walk," Heero said. If I hadn't known him so well,   
  
I would have thought he was trying not to laugh. But then again, I   
  
was starting to realize that I didn't know everything about him,   
  
so it was a real possibility.  
  
"I did?"  
  
"Yes."  
  
It didn't add up, but Heero was being unhelpful as always, so I   
  
tried a different question. Sometimes, he was just too freaking   
  
literal for his own good. When in doubt, rephrase. "Why were you   
  
outside to carry me, anyway?"  
  
"Quatre hauled me out of bed, along with Trowa and Wufei," Heero   
  
shrugged. "He was babbling something about you. Then I heard a   
  
shotgun fire, twice, and went to investigate. I thought you might   
  
be in trouble; you normally are."  
  
"Gee, thanks. It's not like I try, you know." I didn't. Really.  
  
"I know."   
  
"Who was shooting if it wasn't you?"  
  
"I was," someone said.  
  
That voice did not belong to Heero or anyone else I knew. Men   
  
don't spontaneously change into altos. I turned my head as quickly   
  
as I dared.  
  
There was a woman sitting on the edge of Heero's bed. She was my   
  
size - little. I could admit to myself that I was a peanut,   
  
because I knew some wonderful day I'd have a growth spurt if I   
  
didn't get killed first. This woman was definitely not going to be   
  
getting any taller. I would guess she was in her late twenties.   
  
She had white blonde hair that was in a braid longer than mine,   
  
and her skin was fairer than Quatre's. Put that all together, and   
  
she looked like an ice princess or a little girl's porcelain doll.  
  
Dolls didn't have eyes like that, though. There was nothing vapid   
  
or sweet about her. The only other people that have looked at me   
  
like that were Pilots. It's the kind of look that people have when   
  
they're trying to decide whether or not they'll have to shoot you,   
  
and if so, exactly how many bullets to use. There was also the   
  
sawed-off shotgun across her lap. Yeah, that was significant.  
  
I remembered her. She was the last thing I'd seen before I passed   
  
out.   
  
There was something else, though. I had no idea what it was, but   
  
that woman was making the hair on the back of my neck stand on end.   
  
I couldn't describe it any other way except to say that it felt   
  
like she was giving off static electricity. On top of everything   
  
else, it was making me pretty damn uncomfortable.  
  
So I was rude. I freely admit that. "Who the hell are you?" I   
  
demanded. It would have sounded more intimidating, though, if I my   
  
voice hadn't come out so totally pathetic.  
  
She smiled. It was the kind you'd give to a little kid when you're   
  
humoring them.  
  
I didn't like being humored. So I tried to glare at her. It didn't   
  
work. I gave up and looked at the ceiling, deciding to leave any   
  
further efforts at intimidation to Heero. He was better at the   
  
death glares than me anyway.  
  
"My name's Tamlin," she said, "I already know your name is Duo   
  
Maxwell. Your friend Heero and I have been having a nice talk."   
  
She smiled again, this one friendly, open, and fake.   
  
Heero just shrugged. Wasn't he Mr. Eloquence. "You still didn't   
  
answer my question. I asked you who the hell you are. Just a name   
  
doesn't tell me a whole lot," I said. It's hard to be tough when   
  
you're flat on your back and feeling like ten kilos of shit in a   
  
five kilo bag, but I did my best.  
  
She shrugged. "I'm a...bounty hunter."  
  
"Of course, a bounty hunter." Right. I believed that. Somehow,   
  
though, I just couldn't make myself care. I hurt too much. So   
  
instead, I just closed my eyes and did my best to ignore Tamlin   
  
and Heero. The image of that thing on my back with its bright blue   
  
eyes burning at me seemed to be etched into the backs of my   
  
eyelids. The enormity of what had happened suddenly struck me - if   
  
Tamlin hadn't done her mysterious showing up thing, I would have   
  
died. It's one thing to come close to being blown up. I'm used to   
  
that. But I'd never gotten my ass kicked that hard before. The   
  
room got very cold all of a sudden, and I started shivering.  
  
Heero didn't say anything, which was probably the smartest thing   
  
he'd done all day. Tamlin didn't say anything either, which made   
  
me dislike her a bit less. We all just sat in silence until I got   
  
done shaking. It didn't take very long.  
  
"God, I feel like shit." Understatement of the century on my part,   
  
but I really didn't know what else to say, and it was getting way   
  
too quiet. For one crazy moment, I wondered if Heero and Tamlin   
  
had gotten up and left me alone in the room.  
  
No, they hadn't. I could hear Heero shift in his seat. The little   
  
noise was kind of disturbing; it wasn't like him to fidget.  
  
What Tamlin said next was even more disturbing, though. "You might   
  
feel like shit, but you're still lucky. Most people don't survive   
  
their first encounter with a vampire."  
  
For a long moment, I just lay in the bed and stared, waiting for   
  
her to get to the punch line. She just sat and started back at me,   
  
and I started to get the dark, sinking suspicion that it might not   
  
be a joke after all. Finally, I had to say something or go insane   
  
from the silence. Good ol' mouth to the rescue. "You're kidding,   
  
right?"  
  
All the emotion suddenly drained from her face, like someone had   
  
just flipped a switch. On, happy. Off, cold and dead. You will   
  
find, Duo, " she said, her voice devoid of inflection, "that I   
  
never joke about certain things. Vampires are one of them."  
  
"Oh, come on, stop it. Vampires aren't real. They don't exist.   
  
You've been watching too many horror movies." I sounded a little   
  
desperate even to my own ears. To be truthful, I was a lot more   
  
willing to believe in the possibility that vampires really existed   
  
than I wanted to admit. Really, I was a lot more willing to   
  
believe pretty much anything than I would have been last year. Hey,   
  
a lot of weird shit can get crammed into one little year.  
  
"I will say this once more, and you can choose to believe me or   
  
not. Vampires exist. They're real, just like you are." Just as it   
  
had disappeared, the life returned to her face. "You should be a   
  
lot more willing to believe, considering that when I found you,   
  
one was sitting on your back."  
  
Goose pimples mysteriously sprang into being all up and down my   
  
arms. Still, I had to play it tough and attempt to salvage what   
  
little machismo I had left. That's me, heap big Gundam Pilot.   
  
Right. "Yeah, I was there, remember? I know there was something   
  
trying to make cracks in the asphalt with my head. I just don't   
  
know if I believe that it was a vampire."  
  
"But."  
  
"But it sure as hell wasn't human," I finished, my words grudging.  
  
"Then why is it so hard to believe that it could be what I say?"  
  
"Come on, man. Vampires are stuff out of old, corny B movies. You   
  
know, plastic fangs and black capes and black hairdos slicked back   
  
with Crisco. That shit ain't real."  
  
"No," she agreed, "it isn't."  
  
That gave me pause. "What?"  
  
"Movies aren't real. They got a few details right, like the fact   
  
that they drink blood and are afraid of holy items, but the   
  
reality is very different." Her eyes held a burning intensity just   
  
like the one I saw every morning when I looked into the mirror.   
  
This woman had a Purpose. "The only reason that you're still alive,   
  
Duo, is because the vampire didn't want to kill you just yet."  
  
"It was sure as hell doing a good impression of it."  
  
"It wanted you to be unconscious but still alive. Dead blood   
  
poisons them. You must have looked like easy prey, walking by   
  
yourself. You're lucky I was in the area." Her fingers caressed   
  
the barrel of the shotgun. "The only thing I don't understand is   
  
why it attacked you at all. It should have been able to take over   
  
your mind."  
  
"What?"  
  
"If a vampire catches you with its eyes, it can roll your mind   
  
under its will. I should have been able to put you so far down   
  
that it could have peeled your skin off by inches and made you   
  
like it." She shook her head. "But it didn't, and it was being   
  
careful about how it hit. I would guess it was either very young   
  
or very stupid."  
  
Well, wasn't that just fucking peachy-keen. I'd been lucky enough   
  
to be attacked by the world's only moron vampire. "Maybe it just   
  
underestimated the thickness of my skull." I grinned disarmingly.   
  
She seemed to be immune to my winsome charm, though Heero snorted.  
  
"Don't fool yourself. If it had wanted you dead, it could have   
  
ripped your throat out with no effort. They can bench press cars   
  
one-handed. They are not human."  
  
God help me, but I didn't know why I said what I did next,   
  
"Neither are you."  
  
Tamlin stopped mid-tirade, her face going dead again. I was   
  
genuinely scared that she would shoot me. Instead, she started   
  
laughing.  
  
"What? What's so funny?"  
  
She stopped as quick as she'd started. "I think I've been   
  
underestimating you. It all begins to make sense now."  
  
And damnit, no matter how much I whined, she wouldn't say any more.   
  
Finally, she said, "Let's cut to the chase, then."  
  
"Ah, my favorite part."  
  
"There is a kiss of vampires in this area." She held up a hand   
  
before I could interrupt. "A kiss is what we call a group of   
  
vampires. They've been hunting at this school."  
  
That actually explained a lot, like where Ayako had gone. I had to   
  
suppress a major twinge at that thought. She was probably dead,   
  
then. Something was striking me as odd about the whole situation,   
  
though, even more off kilter than being told that vampires were   
  
real. It took me a moment to realize what it was. Heero had been   
  
sitting through the conversation, dead silent. He hadn't snorted,   
  
or made a sarcastic comment even when the woman asserted that   
  
vampires were real. And there was also the fact that he'd let her   
  
into our room with a loaded weapon. Something was not adding up.  
  
"Heero?"  
  
"Yes?"  
  
"Do you know this woman or something?"  
  
"Really. From where?"  
  
The look he gave me as his answer held the chill of absolute zero   
  
in its remoteness. "It's not something I'm willing or able to   
  
speak of."  
  
Well shit. Dive! Dive! Blow ballast! And change the subject while   
  
you're at it! "Fine, then," I said, mentally promising him that we   
  
would be talking about this later. Secrets are dangerous shit.   
  
"What do you think we should do?"  
  
"I think we should listen to her."  
  
Gee thanks, big help there.  
  
Tamlin smiled, "Thank-you, Heero."  
  
Heero shot her another look, and it wasn't the usual glare. It   
  
was...fear? From Heero? Naw, couldn't be. But shit, I was getting   
  
a bit freaked out myself.  
  
"Okay," I said, "I'll bite. So there are bounty hunters that run   
  
around killing vampires."  
  
"Depending upon the Hunter, yes. Sometimes we'll kill other things,   
  
like shape shifters, or rogue witches."  
  
That was starting to get too weird. "Fine, fine. So what does that   
  
have to do with us?"  
  
"All of you have a gift for killing," she said. "I'm just going to   
  
warn you that you might want to broaden your horizons a bit.   
  
Monsters are everywhere, and they aren't necessarily human. I   
  
can't pick your targets for you, but I can give you the knowledge   
  
you'll need to stay alive."  
  
"What do you want in return?" I normally liked it when people   
  
offered to teach me new things, but I also remembered from my   
  
times on the street that nothing is without a price tag.   
  
"Nothing. I'm doing this as a favor for a friend." For some reason,   
  
I didn't find that reassuring. "And I'm also doing this because I   
  
wouldn't want to send anyone out to face the monsters unprepared.   
  
I'm not in the business of getting kids killed."  
  
About that time, Wufei showed up with five million rolls of gauze   
  
and some wonderful, happy orange pill bottles. I'd never been so   
  
glad to see another human being as long as I'd been alive. While   
  
he and Heero cocooned me with kerlix, Tamlin talked about vampires.   
  
It was a nice distraction from the pain. She told me all; about   
  
old ones and young ones, about them being nocturnal, blood, garlic   
  
not working, their abilities, and their habits. That crosses   
  
worked against them, like the movies said, but only when they were   
  
backed by belief.  
  
Huh. Go figure. I believed in God after all, deep down inside.  
  
"Normal bullets won't injure them, and neither will normal knives.   
  
You either have to use straight silver or an alloy with the   
  
highest possible silver content," she said, pausing for effect,   
  
"the best way to kill one is putting a stake through its heart and   
  
cutting off its head. The most foolproof, however, is cremation."  
  
The general principle was sound, but the thought made me a little   
  
queasy. Shooting, people, I could handle. Cutting mobile suits in   
  
half with a thermal scythe, I could handle. Hell, watching Heero   
  
set his own broken leg again, I could handle, a s long as I got   
  
warned ahead of time and was allowed to go sit in a corner and   
  
have the heebie-jeebies for a while. But when it came to chopping   
  
off actual heads, I had a feeling that it was a little grosser   
  
than I was used to. "Didn't you shoot that one, though?"  
  
"I blew off its head and took out the chest with high dispersal   
  
round," she said, grinning, "That works pretty well, too."  
  
"I can imagine." A thought suddenly popped up in my mind. "What   
  
did you do with the body?"  
  
Wufei was the one that answered me. He'd been quiet up to now -   
  
apparently, all had already been explained to him and he was   
  
dealing. "Trowa and Quatre are taking care of it."  
  
One less thing for me to worry about. I felt a twinge of guilt   
  
that they were the ones have to clean up after a mess that was   
  
kind of sort of maybe partially my fault. But then again,   
  
considering that I was still wearing part of said mess splattered   
  
all over me, it was only a very small twinge. I sighed, suddenly   
  
feeling about a thousand years old. "Is that everything?"  
  
"All of the important information that I have. Unfortunately,   
  
there is no operating manual on how to be a hunter. Trust your   
  
instincts. Remember that they are stronger, faster, and much older   
  
than you. With caution, you might live to see another fight." She   
  
stood. "I don't have much time left here. If there are other   
  
Hunters in the area, they will most likely find you. We weren't a   
  
well organized group when I was active, but we still helped each   
  
other out."  
  
"Tamlin?"  
  
"Yes?"  
  
"Is there any GOOD news?"  
  
She laughed. The sound reminded me of some of Heero's more   
  
psychotic moments. "You're still alive, aren't you?"  
  
Heero jarred my arm, and my shoulder let out a loud, nerve-  
  
tingling screech of protest. "Unfortunately, yes."  
  
"There you are, then."  
  
I couldn't let it go. "Tamlin?"  
  
"Yes?" She gave me a curious look, as if no one had ever dared ask   
  
her two questions in a row before.  
  
"I need to know. Why couldn't the vampire catch me with its eyes?"   
  
The question had grown to terrible importance in my mind.  
  
She smiled at me. "If you want my personal theory, I would guess   
  
you have an affinity for the dead. It shields you from their   
  
tricks."  
  
"What makes you say that?"  
  
"You knew there was something wrong with me, didn't you?" Tamlin   
  
winked at me, and then disappeared. She turned into mist that   
  
unbraided itself into wiggly snakes of frost and dissolved away   
  
into nothing.  
  
For a long, long time, I sat there. The end of the bandage that   
  
Wufei had been wrapping around my head slipped from his suddenly   
  
still fingers and hung annoyingly over my right eye. We stared at   
  
each other, then, as Heero kept wrapping another bandage around my   
  
arm, not bothered in the slightest.  
  
"Wufei?" My voice sounded lost, like a little kid that just found   
  
out that Santa Claus wanted to drink his blood. "Please tell me I   
  
didn't just see that." 


	4. Part 3

Acherontia Atropos Chapter 3  
  
The next several days were a blur. I suppose that I must've been   
  
more badly hurt than Heero had said, because normally injuries   
  
won't keep me down that long. It was all fevered flashes of pain   
  
followed by dreamy, floaty periods that meant someone had taken   
  
pity on me and given me one of the pills out of those happy little   
  
medicine bottles Wufei had been kind enough to steal.  
  
I didn't know if it was the happy pills, the head injury, or the   
  
fact that my first vampire had attacked me, but I had some majorly   
  
weird dreams. Memories of the attack were the most prominent, but   
  
that was to be expected. Older memories of fights weren't all that   
  
abnormal either. What got me, though, were the other dreams, the   
  
ones I'd never had before; Trowa and Quatre in each other's arms,   
  
both of them looking through me. Wufei caught in the coils of a   
  
five-clawed dragon.   
  
The one that got me the most, though, was the dream that I had of   
  
Heero. He was sitting at one of the table in the school cafeteria   
  
all by himself, eating a bowl of rice. He looked up at me for a   
  
long moment without saying anything, and the rice started smoking,   
  
then burst into flame. Not cheerful orange log-fire flame, but   
  
deceptively cold looking blue flame, the sort that's so hot you   
  
almost get burned just by looking. And Heero kept eating the rice   
  
with no expression on his face.  
  
Because I had a concussion, the guys had to wake me up every hour   
  
for the first day, which wasn't fun for any of us. I didn't wake   
  
up happily on a good day, and when I was injured, I was even worse.   
  
I yelled, I shouted, I threw things, I whined, and was unpleasant   
  
in general. Heero bore the brunt of it, but he didn't seem to care.   
  
The other guys took their turns, though, I guess when Heero was in   
  
class, and I know for a fact that I managed to hit Trowa in the   
  
head with a paper cup once. I was a sucky patient. So sue me.  
  
I knew one of the guys was always with me. I thought I felt   
  
Heero's hand lightly touching my forehead a couple of times,   
  
though I could have been imagining it. Once, I half woke to the   
  
aromatic smell of tea with lemon, and a gentle voice telling me to   
  
sleep. Another time, it was someone reading to me in Chinese -   
  
Wufei.  
  
When I finally woke up for good it was late afternoon and I felt   
  
surprisingly peppy considering how crappy I'd been doing right   
  
before things got incoherent. I sat up, and even though my head   
  
hurt, it was just the kind of dull ache that bruises get after   
  
you've had them for a couple of days. My stomach also stayed   
  
firmly in place. All in all a major improvement.  
  
"How are you feeling?"  
  
I looked over. The room stayed level. Hot damn. Wufei was sitting   
  
on Heero's bed with a book open in his lap, his tie loosened, and   
  
his jacket off. For Wufei, that was a sloppy as it got. "I'm   
  
feeling pretty good," I said. My mouth was kind of dry, but there   
  
was a glass of water on the chair next to my bed. How convenient.   
  
"How long have I been out?"  
  
"Three days. I decided that we should keep you out that long so   
  
you could have some down time," the corner of Wufei's mouth   
  
quirked. "I remember how difficult it is to make you rest. Besides,   
  
that way we didn't have to you whine as much."  
  
I stuck my tongue out at him. My face felt stiff, so I reached up   
  
and felt around. The roughness of scabs covered my cheeks and   
  
forehead. I grimaced, fascinated by how weird it felt. "Oh man, my   
  
face?" I moaned.  
  
"You look like you got hit by a car," Wufei said, helpful guy that   
  
he is, "It shouldn't scar, though."  
  
"Well, there's some food news," I sighed, "Three days, huh? What   
  
am I going to do about class?"  
  
Wufei shrugged. "Heero covered for you, don't ask me how. I think   
  
the story is that you went off to visit some relatives. How you're   
  
going to explain why you look like you were on the losing end of a   
  
fight is your own problem."  
  
"Not a problem at all," I grinned. "I'm good at that kind of   
  
stuff." Me, bend the truth? Just a little. I preferred to call it   
  
an exercise in creativity. It sounded better that way.  
  
"I noticed."  
  
"You're so nice," I crossed my arms. Someone had been kind enough   
  
to put me in a pair of pajamas. They were soft and so big that I'd   
  
had to roll up the legs and the sleeves. Constant washing had   
  
turned them from black to a kind of fuzzy grey. The thought of   
  
anyone undressing me while I was unconscious, even if it was for   
  
the benign purpose of changing me out of my ripped, bloody clothes   
  
made me kind of nervous, though. Scratch that, very nervous. I   
  
eyed Wufei for a moment, wondering if he was the one who'd done   
  
the deed. He was probably the best friend I had and everything,   
  
but still?  
  
He always could read me like a book. "Not me. Heero."  
  
Great. That made me feel a whole lot better. Sure. The man of my   
  
dreams finally undressed me, and I wasn't even awake to enjoy it.   
  
Life sucked.  
  
Wufei coughed, and I realized that I'd been glaring at him like it   
  
was his fault. I stopped and shrugged. "Anything else interesting   
  
happen?"  
  
"What, since the Vampire Hunter pulled her disappearing act?"   
  
Wufei raised one eloquent eyebrow. I had to admit, I was with him   
  
on that one. I didn't think anything could beat that. "Another   
  
student has disappeared. That brings the body count up to five, if   
  
he and the others we've discovered were indeed taken by them."  
  
"Damn," I rubbed my face with my hands, carefully. "Anyone seen   
  
anything?"  
  
"No."  
  
"Great. How the hell are we supposed to kill something when we   
  
have no idea how to find it, when it's going to attack, or who   
  
it's going to kill?" I sighed.  
  
Wufei shrugged. He knew a rhetorical question when he heard one.   
  
"Heero's going to be back soon," he commented. "He'll be happy to   
  
know that you're awake now."  
  
"Really?" Shit, I was starting to sound like a love-struck   
  
schoolgirl. Well, except for the girl part?  
  
"I believe so. The only time he let one of us take over watching   
  
you was when he had class."  
  
I couldn't help myself. I grinned. "Is he going to be back soon?"  
  
Wufei glanced over at the cheap little clock radio that I'd put on   
  
the desk. "Yes."  
  
I bounced out of bed and stood a little too fast. The room spun   
  
for a moment, and only clutching at the chair saved me from   
  
falling on my nose. Wufei was suddenly on his feet, and he grabbed   
  
my arms. As soon as everything was stabilized, I flashed him a   
  
little grin. "No worries. Just stood up too fast."  
  
"Fine," he let go of my arm, a small smile quirking his lips.  
  
"I'm going to take a shower now, before Heero gets back," I said,   
  
then bounded off toward the bathroom.  
  
Wufei sat back down and picked up his book. "Just don't fall down   
  
when you're in the shower."  
  
* * *  
  
It felt good to be up and about, but it felt even better to get   
  
clean. Someone had done a half-assed job of cleaning me up when I   
  
was unconscious, but really, for as much of a mess as I'd been an   
  
actual shower was the only way to go.   
  
Especially for my poor hair. I almost wailed when I saw how bad it   
  
looked in the mirror. My braid was crusty with dried blood, and my   
  
bangs stuck out in weird angles.  
  
I've always liked showers, which was a good thing considering how   
  
long this one took. I used up the last little bit in the bottom of   
  
my shampoo bottle, which was nice red stuff I'd stolen. It smelled   
  
of raspberries. My hair still wasn't clean, so I moved on to   
  
Heero's bottle. I didn't know where he got it, but it was even   
  
nicer than mine. It smelled kind of like Oreo centers and a little   
  
bit like strawberries, but not in a girly way.  
  
Or maybe I just liked it because it smelled like Heero. I closed   
  
my eyes and basked in the scent and warm water for a moment. Sappy?   
  
Me? Naw.  
  
After I got my hair clean, I worked on the rest of me. I still had   
  
little flecks of dried blood on my shoulders, and my back too, the   
  
way the skin was pulling. The one nice thing about dried blood,   
  
though, was that you didn't even really have to scrub at it. A   
  
couple minutes under the hot, pounding spray of the water and it   
  
came right off. Even after I was clean, I just stood in the spray   
  
and let it beat my sore muscles into a semblance of normalcy,   
  
luxuriating in the nice, warm feeling of being clean.  
  
I got out only when the hot water ran out and my skin was starting   
  
to prune anyway. The pajamas I'd been wearing were dirty, so I   
  
wrapped a towel around myself instead. It was one of the towels   
  
that I'd acquired from a hotel. Hey, they hadn't locked their   
  
doors, and one of the maids had left her little cart sitting out   
  
in the middle of the hall. It was like an invitation. That   
  
particular expedition had kept me supplied with soap and shampoo   
  
for quite some time, as well as providing all my towels.  
  
The one thing about hotel towels, though, was that they're plenty   
  
thick, but always too small. Towels for midgets. The towel barely   
  
wrapped around my waist, and whenever I walked, one of my legs   
  
flashed. The hula girl look. Yeah.  
  
So I wandered out into my room, with my damp hair handing around   
  
my face. The room was filled with the familiar, swift clacking of   
  
that damn laptop keyboard. Wufei wasn't on Heero's bed any more,   
  
and the covers had been straightened so there wasn't even an   
  
indentation where he'd been sitting. Heero himself was at the desk   
  
with perfect posture.  
  
Damn if it didn't look like the setup for a porno movie or   
  
something. I only wished.  
  
"Glad to see you too, Heero," I muttered when he didn't even   
  
glance back.  
  
"Wufei said you were feeling better."  
  
"Yeah," I dug around in the drawers under my bed until I found a   
  
pair of black pants and one of my shirts.  
  
"That's good."  
  
I couldn't think of anything else to say, so I said, "Yeah," again.  
  
Next thing I knew, Heero was out of his chair and standing behind   
  
me. He grabbed me, his hands very cold on my water-warmed upper   
  
arms. I wasn't think about that, though. What kept running around   
  
my lobes was the fact that Heero was holding on pretty tight, and   
  
I remembered how pissed he'd looked about three days ago. Maybe   
  
the look had been directed my way after all, and he was going to   
  
finally follow up on years worth of threats and kill me.  
  
So I started babbling, "Heero, I'm sorry! Don't kill me, I'm   
  
really sorry about whatever I did?" and on and on.  
  
Heero let me go for a few minutes, and then he shook me sharply,   
  
just once. "Quiet," he said.  
  
I did the smart thing and shut up.  
  
There was a long pause, and Heero abruptly let go, then walked   
  
away. "I'm glad you're feeling better. I was?worried."  
  
For once, I didn't know what to say. I just stood there with water   
  
dripping out of my hair. The feeling of Heero's hands was still   
  
burning into my arms, and my brain was running in an endless,   
  
happy little circle that kept repeating, /Heero was worried Heero   
  
was worried Heero was worried?/ over and over again.  
  
Heero, of course, couldn't leave well enough alone. "We have a   
  
mission tomorrow. We need Deathscythe," he said.  
  
My thoughts ground to a screeching half. Shit. "I see," I said.   
  
Shit, shit, shit, shit, and shit. I sighed quietly, anything to   
  
keep from attempting to kill him, and got dressed.  
  
* * *  
  
"You bastard! You scratched my paint! You're going to DIE!" I   
  
shrieked at the top of my lungs, right before I sliced the   
  
offending Leo and one of its buddies in half with a single slash   
  
of my thermal scythe.  
  
Okay, so maybe I had a little hostility that still needed to be   
  
worked out of my system.  
  
What better to take it out on than some hapless Leos, though. They   
  
were like the red shirts from the old show?Star Trek, I think it   
  
was. Completely expendable, or else Oz would've come up with   
  
something a little better to send against us. Their mediocrity   
  
just begged to be destroyed, and I was more than happy to oblige.  
  
Maniacal laughter bubbled up between my lips and I reversed the   
  
course of the scythe, cutting a Leo that had been trying to shoot   
  
me in the back off at the knees. It hit the ground and exploded in   
  
a most satisfying manner. I could almost feel waves of disapproval   
  
coming through my comlink to Heero.  
  
Like I gave a rat's golden anus. After giving me the brush-off   
  
that night before, Heero had proceeded to ignore me until it was   
  
time to go to bed. I would have liked to stay up and pursue the   
  
other problem, but missions took precedence over playing with   
  
vampires. I really needed to find someone more helpful than Tamlin   
  
anyway.  
  
"Three behind you, Duo," Heero said.  
  
"Gotcha!" I caroled, engaging my thrusters for a high jump, then   
  
crashing down on the enemy. One of them was completely crushed   
  
under me, and the other two fell quickly to the heat of my scythe.  
  
It had been a VERY frustrating day.  
  
I was trapped in a truck with Heero all the way to the staging   
  
area. He ignored me the entire time, so I'd been forced to talk   
  
non-stop to keep the absolute silence at bay. The one time I'd   
  
turned the radio on, he'd turned it off and yanked the knob off.   
  
We'd met with Quatre and Trowa, and I must have had that maniacal   
  
gleam in my eye, because Quatre looked worried when he saw me. We,   
  
or rather Heero, decided that the two of them would take the main   
  
job, which was to blow up the military base, while we would run   
  
interference and act as a diversion. Wufei was off on a mission of   
  
his own; he'd left before us and said he wouldn't be back for a   
  
few days.  
  
A sudden blast rocked Deathscythe, and I started concentrating on   
  
the fight again. I could save my resentment for a safer time.   
  
There was a heavy cannon behind me, probably dropped in while I   
  
was dwelling on what a jerk that bastard Heero was?  
  
/Stop that,/ I told myself.  
  
Abruptly, Wing was between the cannon and I, just as it fired   
  
again. Heero's Gundam was enveloped in the blast, and for one   
  
heart-stopping moment, I thought?but no. A glance at the comlink   
  
showed that Heero was still there, if a bit staticky. Of course. I   
  
wasn't sure he even knew how to die?though he had made a good   
  
impression of it, once.  
  
There was a second blast as the cannon blew up. Obviously,   
  
getting show with depleted uranium rounds didn't agree with it.  
  
I half turned and reduced the Leo that had been trying to shoot me   
  
with its pathetic excuse for a gattling into a small pile of slag.   
  
"Hey, Heero, how many left?"  
  
"As many as there are until Trowa and Quatre blow the base."  
  
Unhelpful jerk.  
  
I went back to destroying the Leos and a few isolated Tauruses   
  
until the entire eastern part of the sky lit up. It wasn't time   
  
for dawn yet, so that was our signal. Heero took to the air and   
  
grabbed Deathscythe as I continued to yell at the few remaining   
  
mobile suits on the field.  
  
It was immature, I know, but God it felt good.  
  
* * *  
  
When we got back to the room it was still nicely dark, promising   
  
at least a few hours of sleep before I had to haul my sorry,   
  
dragging ass out of bed for school. I couldn't wait to hear what   
  
all the girls would have to say about the state of my face. The   
  
hot shower and being slammed around in the cockpit hadn't helped   
  
things. I had crusty scabs all over my face, and I was a mass of   
  
bruises that were a nasty yellow-green.  
  
Someone had picked the lock to our room, which upset Heero quite a   
  
bit. He made me sit outside while he swept the room for bugs,   
  
explosives, banana splits (okay, maybe not that) and the like. All   
  
the work turned up nothing.  
  
Well, almost. Whoever it was had left me a little present; a plain   
  
white box like the sort you get long stemmed roses in. After   
  
taking one look in the box, I got the feeling it was a present   
  
from Tamlin. There was a sawed-off shotgun like the one she'd had,   
  
and a smaller box with ammunition that appeared to be silver.   
  
There were also three handguns, a Beretta 9mm and two Browning Hi-  
  
Power Vs, with silver ammo to go with. Nice stuff. Heero   
  
immediately took the guns apart and put them back together, just   
  
to make sure they were ordinary guns. They were.  
  
A couple of rather excited conversations later, we divided the   
  
weapons up. One of the Brownings for me, the Beretta for Heero,   
  
and the other Browning for Quatre. The shotgun we squirreled away   
  
with the other guns we had cached around the dorm.  
  
The Browning fit nicely between my bed and the wall, right at hand   
  
even when I was asleep. I should've felt thrilled, I guess.   
  
Christmas came early, right?  
  
The mysterious shit was really starting to get on my nerves,   
  
though. 


	5. Part 4

Acherontia Atropos Part 4  
  
My ass was a sorry ass indeed the next morning when it got hauled   
  
out of bed. Note that I said "got hauled" instead of "got up." I   
  
didn't have the pleasure of waking up on my own. Heero did it for   
  
me.  
  
I suppose I should've been grateful that he'd been thoughtful   
  
enough to wake me up so I wouldn't oversleep and miss yet another   
  
day of class. Instead, I was just pissed. I'd never thought that I   
  
could hurl a chair with such accuracy, especially right handed.   
  
Heero ducked, so it made a nice dent in the wall.  
  
Heero had woken me up from a nice dream that involved him, a can   
  
of whipped cream, and a set of handcuffs. So I had a good excuse   
  
to be cranky.  
  
School was the same old stuff as always. Boring teachers, even   
  
more boring lectures, and yet another lab in science where the   
  
teacher's assistant wouldn't let me have a Bunsen burner.   
  
Chemistry is only interesting when it's hands on. When you have to   
  
sit back and watch everyone else playing with potentially lethal   
  
substances, it just sucks. You'd think that after a couple of   
  
months, they'd start to let me participate again, but no, the   
  
teacher's assistant was being a dork. I mean, geeze, his eyebrows   
  
had grown back okay.  
  
As predicted, I was cornered by a group of girls and forced to   
  
endure their distressed cooing over my face until Quatre took pity   
  
and rescued me. Normally, I wouldn't have objected to the   
  
attention I was getting from the ladies. A guy could only take so   
  
much pity before he started losing patience with it, though.   
  
Especially when the guy had as much on his mind as I did.  
  
"Hey, thanks man." I said as soon as we were out of earshot. I   
  
dusted my jacket off. One of the girls had been eating potato   
  
crisps, and gotten crumbs all over me.   
  
"No problem." Quatre said. In companionable silence, we hit the   
  
cafeteria for a leisurely dinner, just the two of us. We took our   
  
time enjoying the calm until the custodian chased us out so he   
  
could close the room and start cleaning. It was time to go back to   
  
our cells - er - dorm rooms.   
  
"How the new gun working out for you?" I asked.  
  
Her snorted. "Haven't had occasion to try it out in the last few   
  
hours. I'll let you know when I do." Quatre shrugged. "I'm still   
  
not certain why Trowa didn't take it. I suppose he's still   
  
counting on his knives."  
  
I grinned slyly at Quatre "How go things with Trowa, hm?"  
  
I was rewarded with a very cute blush. That was Quatre, all over.   
  
He'd admitted to me a long time ago that he had the hots -- well,   
  
let's be fair to Quatre -- MORE than the hots for Trowa. And I was   
  
all for it. The two of them were too damn cute. The only problem   
  
was that Trowa was   
  
being about as affectionate and open as Heero. Well, maybe not   
  
quite that bad, but still, it was a source of endless frustration   
  
for Quatre. He and I sometimes got together for bitch sessions   
  
over tea when we were feeling too frustrated to deal with the   
  
other guys, or rather lack thereof. I'd have to say next to Wufei,   
  
Quatre was my best friend.   
  
He didn't let the blush stop him from getting me back. "About as   
  
well as things with Heero, I imagine." Looks could be deceiving;   
  
he had humor and a quick mind to go with the kindness and patience.   
  
Not just another pretty face, you could say.  
  
"Ouch! Stung!" I clapped a hand to my forehead in a dramatic   
  
gesture, and immediately wished I hadn't. "Damnit!"   
  
Quatre peered at me with concerned eyes. "Are you all right?"   
  
"Yeah, fine." I shook my head. "I'm too absent minded."  
  
"Yes, you are."  
  
"You don't have to agree!" I grinned, and Quatre grinned in return.   
  
"Is Trowa still upset about me throwing that cup at him?"  
  
"I don't think he was ever mad about it at all. We all know what   
  
you're like in the morning."   
  
"I'm a real monster, huh?"  
  
"Until you get your coffee, yes."   
  
We passed through the school lobby. The floor was actual varnished   
  
wood, a real departure from the grey-speckled off-white tiles that   
  
were usual school fare. It had wood paneling, too, and the main   
  
office had actual glass doors. Very impressive. The only school   
  
I'd ever seen that was nicer was that Relena girl's school, but   
  
considering how rich she was, it wasn't that surprising.  
  
I scowled. Why the hell did I have to think of Relena now? I   
  
pushed the thoughts away, just in case, like the devil, thinking   
  
about her would draw her attention. I must have been muttering   
  
pretty murderously to myself.  
  
"What's up this time?" Quatre asked.  
  
"Ruminations on the she-beast, destroyer of afternoons and piercer   
  
of eardrums." We turned down a hallway, heading for the dorms.  
  
Quatre laughed, but looked embarrassed as well. "She's really not   
  
that bad, Duo. She just doesn't fit into our world - we should be   
  
grateful for that. No one should be able to when you come down to   
  
it, not even us."  
  
I shook my head. "Save it, man? you know I don't have the patience   
  
for her."  
  
"I know. Hope springs eternal."  
  
"I think we're both experts in that."  
  
"Yeah. Hope for freedom, hope for an end to war, hope for love, I   
  
guess."  
  
"Hope we'll make it through each mission in one piece," Quatre   
  
said.   
  
There was something in his voice, a discordant tone of worry. I   
  
glance at him, noting his closed expression. Pensive Quatre never   
  
equaled good news. "What's up?"  
  
"They're doing split-off missions again."  
  
"Ones and twos? Damn, I hate those, even if they are tactically   
  
sound for us." I shook my head, a wry grin bubbling up. "Kind of   
  
funny, yanno? We all used to do solo. Wonder how the hell we got   
  
caught up in being a team."  
  
Quatre shook his head. "Trowa and Heero are on tomorrow. Supply   
  
depot, I think."  
  
I stopped in my tracks, head buzzing. We'd just been on a mission,   
  
so they'd be alert and doubly dangerous. Danger and risk were our   
  
family, though. No, what bothered me was the fact that Heero   
  
hadn't breathed a word of this to me. "Really," I said, voice   
  
hollow, "Trowa let you know, huh?"  
  
"Yes." Quatre touched my arm with his pale fingers. "Is something   
  
going on?"  
  
"Nothing to worry about," I said, smiling, "I'll catch you later,   
  
okay? I ought to go wish Heero some luck. Break a leg and all that   
  
jazz."  
  
He let me go without comment, though as I walked away I thought I   
  
heard him mutter, "I hope you're not being literal?"  
  
I wasn't. But damn, it was tempting.  
  
center* * */center  
  
Ceilings have got to be just about one of the most boring things   
  
in the world to look at. They're blank, white, unadorned, and   
  
totally uninteresting. So why the hell was I laying in bed,   
  
staring at mine?  
  
Easy. The answer was sitting at the desk, typing on that damn   
  
laptop. I was really starting to hate that stupid machine.  
  
"Hey, Heero?"  
  
"What?"  
  
"I'm bored." Yes, it sounded childish, but what else could I say   
  
in that situation? 'Heero, I lust after your body?' I think not.   
  
He didn't even bother turning around. "Do your homework."  
  
I curled my lip at that particular suggestion. The homework in   
  
question was laying in piles on the floor around my bed, a nice,   
  
pretty scattering of books and papers. I hated homework. I didn't   
  
figure that I'd need it anyway, considering I was probably going   
  
to get killed before I saw graduation. "Heero?"  
  
"No." He said, very flatly.  
  
That annoyed me. "You didn't even know what I was going to ask!"   
  
"You should do your homework."  
  
I waved my middle finger at his back. "I was going to ask for your   
  
help, jerk."  
  
"You're smart enough that you don't need my help. You're just   
  
being lazy."  
  
I could have gotten a little more pissed about that comment if I'd   
  
known it wasn't true. But really, it was. I just wanted an excuse   
  
to get Heero close to me. Though considering how he was acting, I   
  
had no idea why. Whatever bug had crawled up his ass lately was   
  
really starting to wear thin. "C'mon, Heero?"  
  
"What?"  
  
Still no emotion. For all I could hear, I wasn't even annoying him.   
  
Fine then. The real question. "Why didn't you tell me you were   
  
going on a mission tomorrow?"  
  
He actually stopped typing. Will wonders never cease. "I didn't   
  
think it was important." He said quietly.   
  
"You didn't think it was important?" I was suddenly on my feet and   
  
stalking over to Heero. I couldn't even remember getting up. "So   
  
you were planning to just go off on the mission tomorrow without   
  
even telling me?" I could hear my voice getting a little louder   
  
with each word, but at that point, I didn't care. "Did it ever   
  
occur to you, that as your friend, I might get a little worried?"  
  
Heero shrugged. "Quatre would tell you. He obviously did."  
  
"It's not the same if you hear it from someone Ielse!/I"  
  
Heero shrugged again. That was it. I turned around and stalked out   
  
of the room, slamming the door behind me.  
  
center* * */center  
  
So I found myself outside, taking a walk. Again. Without a jacket   
  
or a gun. The jacket wasn't that big of a deal, since it had   
  
warmed up even more in the last couple of days, but the gun was a   
  
real pisser. I wasn't going to go back to the room and get it,   
  
though. No way. I might be tempted to shoot someone, even though   
  
it would waste a silver bullet.  
  
So I shoved my hands in my pockets and slouched off along my   
  
normal walking route, toward the woods. I was feeling jumpy,   
  
taking in to consideration the fact that I had been attacked   
  
several nights ago right here. My stubborn was apparently   
  
overruling my smart.  
  
My skin felt too small. My hands itched like they were collecting   
  
static electricity, and my head felt fuzzy with it. I cautiously   
  
felt my bangs to see if they were standing on end. They weren't. I   
  
had no idea what it was, but being outside, under the night sky   
  
with the full moon was making it a hell of a lot stronger.  
  
I'd been feeling that way all night, which was probably why I had   
  
been so quick to jump on Heero. Not that I was sorry about getting   
  
on his case, lord no. I was just kind of mad at myself. The way   
  
I'd been going after him, I'd sounded more like a scorned date   
  
than an angry friend. Not good. I didn't think Heero would notice,   
  
though. Quatre would have, and maybe Trowa or Wufei, but Heero was   
  
way to obtuse when it came to emotions to get it. I hoped.  
  
A flash of light color against the dark grey world caught my   
  
attention. I wasn't the only one walking out to the trees tonight.   
  
I couldn't quite make out his or her face, so I sped my pace and   
  
moved to intercept. I reached the kid pretty quickly. He was one   
  
of the boys from my class, Yan. He was still half dressed in his   
  
school uniform sans jacket and tie.   
  
"Hey, Yan! Wait up!" I sped up a little more so that I could catch   
  
him. He didn't even pause or stop, like he hadn't heard me. He did   
  
stop, though, when I grabbed his arm. "What're you doing out   
  
here?"  
  
Yan blinked a couple of times, like I had just woken him up, and   
  
looked at me, surprised. "Maxwell?" Yan was a nice kid, and a real   
  
refreshing guy to get to know after having spent so much time with   
  
the other pilots. He actually acted his age. He was pretty good   
  
looking too; golden skin with a permanent tan, dark sloe eyes,   
  
very classic oriental features. Hell, he and Wufei could have been   
  
distant cousins, they looked enough alike. He had something Wufei   
  
didn't, though; he was still innocent. "Duo?" He asked. "What are   
  
you doing out here?"  
  
"Taking a walk. What about you?" I didn't relinquish my hold on   
  
his arm. Something was bothering me, but I couldn't quite put my   
  
finger on it.  
  
"I was taking a walk too?" Yan made it sound more like a question   
  
than a statement. He waved his free hand vaguely toward the woods.   
  
"I told some friends that I'd meet them out here tonight."  
  
The hair on the back of my neck suddenly stood on end, and I   
  
glanced toward the woods. There was a light shape there, shining   
  
in the moonlight. It looked almost human. As I watched, another   
  
joined it. Something told me, though, that they weren't human. Not   
  
by a long shot. All of a sudden, I really wished I had my gun. I   
  
started backing away, pulling Yan with me. "Yan, those aren't your   
  
friends."  
  
"Yes they are." He looked back at them. "I've been meeting them   
  
here for a couple of days."  
  
"Where'd you meet them before, then? Ain't normal to just meet   
  
strange people in the woods, Yan." I said, trying a little logic   
  
on him. "They look way too old to be students."  
  
His brow wrinkled with confusion. "I? don't know." A shadow seemed   
  
to pass over his face, something changing him from the outside to   
  
make him complacent once more. "Oh, you now. A dance," he said   
  
vaguely.  
  
I just stopped in my tracks, doing my best to keep an eye on the   
  
two...wait, no, there were three now...figures at the edge of the   
  
woods. With a trembling hand, I reached up and pulled down the   
  
collar of Yan's school uniform. He had two sets of neat puncture   
  
wounds, already starting to heal,   
  
on his neck. Without really knowing why I was checking there, I   
  
reached down and pushed up the cuff of his right sleeve. Two more   
  
punctures on his wrist. "Oh shit." I said, very quietly. "Yan,   
  
come on, let's go back inside. Now. Please." I started to pull him   
  
back toward the school again. There were four figures at the edge   
  
of the woods, now.  
  
Yan did something totally unexpected. He glanced back toward the   
  
woods, and then his face twisted with sudden, inexplicable fury.   
  
And then dear little innocent Yan yanked his arm out of my grasp,   
  
kneed me in the groin, and took off running. 


	6. Part 5

Acherontia Atropos Part 5  
  
I hit the dirt in an undignified heap. Suddenly, nothing much   
  
mattered except for the fact that Yan, whom I had thought wouldn't   
  
know violence if it smacked him in the face, had kneed me in the   
  
groin. Tears tried to squeeze themselves out of my eyes and I   
  
forgot to breathe for a couple of minutes while I just lay on the   
  
ground and curled up into a little ball.   
  
There was a surge of that weird staticky feeling that I'd had all   
  
night, and it came up through the ground and hit me like a spark.   
  
I was on my feet and feeling a hell of a lot better before I could   
  
even think about it. Yan was almost to the woods, and I limped   
  
after him as quickly as I could. Yeah, Duo, real smart. Further   
  
toward the kill zone, please.  
  
I couldn't just leave him to those monsters. I had the feeling   
  
that Yan wasn't the one that kneed me, not really. Tamlin had said   
  
that vampires could roll an ordinary human's mind with their eyes.   
  
Yan was as ordinary as it got. He was sweet, and innocent, and   
  
like everybody's little brother, damnit. So I followed him right   
  
into the jaws of the beast, armed only with my little gold cross   
  
and my dubious amount of faith.  
  
Not one of the brightest things I'd ever done.   
  
By the time I reached the woods, there were six vampires, and Yan   
  
had already gotten to them. There were three females and three   
  
males. All of them, and I mean all of them, looked like walking   
  
wet dreams. Nothing at all like the thing that had attacked me   
  
before. I knew they were vampires, though, no matter what they   
  
looked like. It's like how I knew the words I said over Heero's   
  
body a year ago. No explanation...I just knew.  
  
Just like I knew that there were two more hanging back, and a   
  
third barely on the edge of my perception, controlling the others.  
  
I stopped about six meters away from the vampires and stood. I   
  
could feel the electric energy almost rolling off of them and   
  
brushing past me, raising the hair on my arms. I didn't know what   
  
the hell it was, but it was fascinating, and it felt almost...nice.   
  
I'd worry about that later. Right now, I was worried about the   
  
fact that there were vampires, they had Yan, and I was completely   
  
unarmed.   
  
IDamnit, Heero, why'd I leave the room without the gun. What are   
  
you guys doing? I need you!/I I thought angrily. I knew that   
  
there was no way they could know that I was in trouble, but it   
  
felt good to be able to mentally curse someone.  
  
For a long moment, the vampires watched me, and I watched them   
  
right back. Yan was being held by one of the females, a tall red   
  
head that looked like she could have been a fashion model or   
  
something. She was wearing a dress, something white, thin, and   
  
almost see through. She had Yan cradled in her arms, with his face   
  
pressed against her breasts. She smiled, flashing her fangs in the   
  
moonlight.  
  
I licked my suddenly dry lips. "Let him go." I said with a lot   
  
more authority than I felt.  
  
"No." The red headed vampire clutched Yan a little more tightly.   
  
He made a soft, very contented sound. "The little one is quite   
  
happy where he is."  
  
There was a tiny flicker in my peripheral vision, and I   
  
transferred the main part of my attention to the vampire that had   
  
moved. He was also very tall, with pale blonde hair that looked   
  
white in the moonlight. He was dressed in jeans so tight that they   
  
looked like they were painted on, and a t-shirt that appeared to   
  
be more holes than anything else. He smiled at me as well,   
  
managing to not show any fang. "You could join him in our arms."   
  
He licked his lips. "I promise to be gentle."   
  
"No thanks. I just want Yan." I took a step back as the vampire   
  
took a step forward.  
  
"Look into my eyes."   
  
I suppressed the urge to laugh. Talk about B-movie vampires... I   
  
had the feeling it would piss him off if I didn't act impressed,   
  
though. So far, they seemed to be content just to play with me.   
  
Which was fine. I didn't really want to get attacked outright.   
  
"I'd rather not, if you don't mind."  
  
He took another step forward. I took another step back. He laughed.   
  
Glad someone was having a good time. "You smell interesting, human.   
  
I just want you to look me in the eye."  
  
"Really, that's okay."  
  
The red head had obviously had enough games. "Do what he says, or   
  
I will kill this one." She stroked Yan's cheek gently with one   
  
hand. He giggled softly, his brain on a different planet.  
  
INever look a vampire in the eye,/ITamlin had said. Well, it   
  
looked like I didn't have a lot of choice. Shit. So I did it. I   
  
looked the blonde vampire in the eye, expecting at any moment for   
  
my mind to get torn apart or sucked away or whatever happened when   
  
vampires rolled someone under.  
  
It was completely anti-climactic. His eyes were just eyes. Pretty,   
  
I'll admit, a crystalline, icy blue vaguely reminiscent of   
  
Tamlin's, but nothing more.  
  
"What is wrong, Paul?" One of the other vampires, I think a female   
  
one, asked.  
  
Paul. Somehow, it didn't seem right for a vampire to be named Paul.  
  
Whatever the vampire saw in my eyes, he didn't like. He frowned,   
  
and his eyes took on a faint glow. He said something in a guttural   
  
language that I didn't understand. Whatever it was sounded very   
  
disgruntled. "What are you?" He demanded, in Standard once more.  
  
I shrugged. "I don't know." I couldn't help it, I grinned. Hey,   
  
I'd just made a major victory, as far as I was concerned. I was   
  
still in control of my own mind. Good sign. "So now what?"  
  
I don't think that was what he wanted to hear. He surged forward,   
  
and I managed to take a step back and grab the chain of my cross.   
  
He was faster than a normal human, but not enough to overwhelm me.  
  
He didn't try to grab me like I'd expected, instead he punched me   
  
before I could dodge. He was sure as hell a lot stronger than a   
  
human; his fist connected with my ribcage and I went flying. I hit   
  
the ground hard and he was on me, fangs bared. I yanked the cross   
  
out from under my shirt, and it flared into life.  
  
Immediately, the vampire was gone. The others were shrieking   
  
loudly. I pushed myself up to a sitting position and clutched my   
  
ribs. I couldn't tell if anything was broken. It all hurt way too   
  
much. Shit.   
  
It took me a couple seconds to gain my feet, and they were the   
  
longest seconds of my life. I still wasn't convinced about the   
  
entire cross thing. I was waiting for one of them to shout "Just   
  
kidding!" and leap on me. But no, they were cowering away. The red   
  
head and the blonde were just shielding their eyes, the other   
  
three were shrieking and backing up. I took a step forward.  
  
They all took a step back. Damn, it felt good.  
  
The good feeling didn't last long, though. The red headed vampire   
  
wrapped one of her hands around Yan's throat, still shielding her   
  
eyes with the other one. "Take the cross off and throw it away."  
  
"The hell with that!" I yelled.  
  
"If you don't, I will rip his throat out." I saw her hand tighten,   
  
and Yan giggled. "I am not joking, human, and you know it."  
  
Shit. That was the problem with being the good guy. You couldn't   
  
let another good guy get killed in front of you. I reached up and   
  
grabbed my cross. It was faintly warm in my hand. I snapped the   
  
chain with one sharp yank, then threw it away. Hopefully, I'd be   
  
alive to get it back later.  
  
I really wished that I hadn't left without my gun. I also wished   
  
that the guys were here. I really did.  
  
The light of the cross died as soon as I pulled it off, and the   
  
vampires stopped cowering. "There, happy?"  
  
"Very." Paul the vampire started moving toward me again. One of   
  
the other female ones, this one with black hair and dressed in   
  
more leather than I've ever seen in one place, slunk along with   
  
him.  
  
"Whoa, whoa, stop there." I backed away. "What the hell do you   
  
want?"  
  
"Stop moving." The red head commanded. "Or I will kill him."  
  
Shit. I stopped. Paul and the other vampire took a leisurely walk   
  
up to me, and slowly looked me up and down the way you'd check out   
  
a horse before you bought it. The female vampire leaned in and   
  
blew softly on my ear. I flinched. There was something about them,   
  
that energy that I'd felt earlier, and it was almost dancing   
  
across my skin.  
  
Paul stopped on the other side of me and grabbed my braid,   
  
stroking it gently. That bastard. I suddenly decided that I would   
  
kill him first, as soon as I got out of this situation and managed   
  
to get a weapon. NO ONE touches my hair. Especially not a stupid   
  
vampire with B movie dialogue. "He is pretty, isn't he, Victoria."  
  
Victoria. So that was the leather queen's name. Gag me.  
  
She breathed softly in my ear. "I like you."   
  
"That's nice." I said. "I don't think I like you." Me and my big   
  
mouth.  
  
She laid a hand on my chest. I fell to my knees, gasping for   
  
breath. Victoria giggled. I decided that it was a sound that I   
  
didn't like. Paul hauled me to my feet like I didn't weigh   
  
anything when I couldn't manage to stand up right away on my own.   
  
Great.  
  
Victoria blew on my ear again, and then there was a quick wetness   
  
that could only be her tongue. I couldn't help it, I shivered. I   
  
had to close my eyes and imagine that it was someone else, because   
  
I knew I couldn't give her the satisfaction of whimpering, which   
  
is what I really wanted to do. No, better to pretend that it was   
  
Heero, or anyone else at all.   
  
She giggled. Again. It was really setting my teeth on edge. I   
  
concentrated on the annoyance and anger, anything to keep myself   
  
from thinking about the fact that she was nibbling on my ear...and   
  
then my neck. My eyes flew open.   
  
"Just relax, pretty one. I just want a little taste." she   
  
whispered.  
  
I had to try twice before I found my voice. "Something tells me   
  
that with you, it's never just a little taste." I said.   
  
"True." She licked my neck, and I did my best to flinch away.  
  
"Victoria just wants a taste, pretty one. She won't hurt you, too   
  
much." Paul whispered in my other ear. Oh God, I had both of them   
  
after me, now. "If you fight, Cheree will kill the boy. You're a   
  
much more interesting toy than he is."  
  
"What do you want?" I asked, very quietly. My voice didn't shake   
  
or crack. Point for me. God, I hated being powerless more than   
  
anything else.  
  
Cheree, the red head, laughed. It was a practiced sound, pleasant   
  
like a warm blanket that you could almost wrap around yourself. "I   
  
want your fear, pretty one, and your anger. I want it to wash   
  
over me."  
  
I didn't think I'd ever been so thoroughly trapped before in my   
  
entire life. This one was wholly my fault. I decided that when I   
  
got free, Paul would be second. Cheree was going to die first.  
  
Victoria actually kissed me. Full on the lips, open mouth, tongue   
  
and everything. I didn't respond, and after a long minute, she   
  
pulled away. Her lips moved to my neck. "You must be the one that   
  
Thomas got himself killed trying to take. Are you worth it? It is   
  
not often one stands against the coterie of Ebon Thorns" I felt   
  
sharpness that could have only been her fangs, and I shut my eyes   
  
tightly. I would not scream. I would not scream. I would not   
  
scream. Oh God...  
  
I heard a sound behind me. Running footsteps, getting closer. Hot   
  
damn. Victoria pulled abruptly back and hissed. Whoever it was (I   
  
was praying that it was the guys) started shooting. A bullet hit   
  
Victoria in her arm, and there was an explosion of blood. She went   
  
down clutching her arm. Whatever kind of ammo that Tamlin had   
  
given us, it definitely was not for play. I wanted to cheer.  
  
That happy thought got cut off when Paul grabbed me by the throat.   
  
Suddenly, time slowed down for me, like it sometimes does in the   
  
middle of really intense fights. The electricity I'd been feeling   
  
all evening jolted through my body like cold black lightning, and   
  
I sent it blasting outwards, down into the ground, and, most   
  
importantly, through Paul's arm. It's hard to find the words to   
  
describe how it felt. My nerve endings were on fire, but strangely   
  
enough, it was pleasant. I felt like I was filled to the brim with   
  
cool, dark water that I could manipulate at will. When it went   
  
flowing into Paul, the spark that was him retreated before the   
  
rush of power, and then he was mine.  
  
He was mine, and I could feel him hating me.  
  
"Let me go." I said, a lot more calm than I had any right to be. I   
  
could feel things happening around me, more bullets flying through   
  
the air, the vampires beginning to retaliate...then beginning to   
  
fall back as the power that was filling me up swept over them.   
  
None of it mattered, because for that one moment, I and the power   
  
were all that existed. This was what I meant when I called myself   
  
Shinigami, the God of Death.  
  
Paul let me go. I fell to my knees, clutching my ribs and trying   
  
to start breathing again. "Back away." I wheezed. He backed up two   
  
steps, and I could feel a line of power stretching between us like   
  
a rubber band. One more step, and it snapped. Paul was free from   
  
my control, though I could still dimly 'feel' him. He shot me a   
  
look of pure, utter hatred, and fled with the others, disappearing   
  
into the woods.  
  
The guys were right behind me, I could hear them, and I could feel   
  
them sending ripples shuddering through the dark power that was   
  
still filling me. Trowa and Heero ran past me toward the woods,   
  
though Heero paused long enough to give me a quick once over with   
  
his eyes, to make sure I wasn't bleeding profusely or anything.  
  
"Duo!" It was Quatre. I turned to look at him. There was a   
  
tangible bubble of energy around me, soulless black that somehow   
  
glowed, hurting the eyes. He touched the outlying edges with the   
  
tips of his fingers, and then jerked his hand away, shaking it as   
  
if it had stung.   
  
Abruptly, the bubble popped and all the energy dried up. I found   
  
myself laying on the asphalt of the parking lot, again, gasping   
  
for breath. I was completely empty.  
  
"Duo... are you okay? What was that?" Quatre was on his knees   
  
beside me, helping me roll over. I jerked when he touched me, and   
  
rolled away. His hands were like searing fire after glacial cold.   
  
"Duo!"  
  
"Don't touch me!" I screamed, and struggled to my feet, rear-end   
  
first. It wasn't terribly dignified, but it was the quickest way   
  
to get up. I stumbled toward the woods, half running.  
  
There was blood, so much blood, all over the asphalt and in the   
  
dirt by the trees. I knew some of it belonged to the vampires;   
  
Trowa, Heero, and Quatre had managed to wound most of them. That   
  
wasn't what I was interested in though. There, under one of the   
  
huge, ancient trees, the ground had turned into black, sticky mud.   
  
The air was chokingly full of the coppery tang of fresh, cooling   
  
blood. There was so much blood, too much blood.  
  
I knew where all the power had come from, though not why it had   
  
come to me. I knew what it was now.  
  
Yan was there, laying in the middle of the sea of mud. His head   
  
was thrown back and one of his arms was carelessly to the side,   
  
like he was just sleeping. There was even a soft, innocent smile   
  
curving his lips. His formerly pristine white shirt was now shiny,   
  
wet black in the moonlight. Where his neck had been, there was   
  
only a gaping hole, gleaming dully.  
  
That bitch had said she wanted my fear and my anger. She could   
  
have my anger, all of it. I'd give her all I could hold. I grabbed   
  
a tree for support and started throwing up until I was empty and I   
  
felt like I was going to vomit my toenails. When I was done, I   
  
looked back. Yan was still laying there in the moonlight. He   
  
wasn't a hallucination, like I'd half hoped.  
  
I fell to my knees in the mud by him and let the cooling blood   
  
soak into my pant legs.   
  
I knew where all that power had come from.  
  
Oh God, I wished I didn't know. 


	7. Part 6

Acherontia Atropos Part 6  
  
Until that time, I'd thought that I'd seen at all, that no horror   
  
the world could throw at me could really touch me. I thought my   
  
sense of humor was in impenetrable mask.  
  
Some things stain the soul, but they're stains that you can live   
  
with. I still had nightmares about everything I'd seen, but I'd   
  
gotten to the point that I was used to them, because it was either   
  
that or go completely insane or turn into Heero. Yeah, I'd thought   
  
that nothing could bother me.  
  
God, I was wrong. I was so wrong.  
  
Yan was suddenly bumped to the top of the list of bad shit I'd   
  
seen. The only things that were still over him were the carnage in   
  
Maxwell Church and the dim memory that I have of the aftermath   
  
that killed my family and destroyed my home when I was too young   
  
to know what violence was. Most of the death I'd seen in the war   
  
were the clean, quick endings of mobile suits or carriers   
  
exploding. Nothing like this.   
  
There was something indecent about it, fundamentally wrong. Death   
  
is so much more personal when it's someone you know, and violent   
  
death is the ultimate insult. It becomes an attack on you. Your   
  
emotions get so tangled up that you feel like you're one massive   
  
knot inside. On one hand, you feel guilty that the person died,   
  
and you didn't. On the other, you suddenly feel relief so profound   
  
that it almost brings tears to your eyes, relief that it was the   
  
other person and not you, and that only makes you feel worse. You   
  
start wondering if there was any way that you could have saved the   
  
other person, any way at all, and even if there wasn't, you feel   
  
like shit because there should have been.  
  
I wouldn't be the God of Death if I couldn't admit that. It didn't   
  
make it any easier, though. Somewhere between the rational and the   
  
emotional, communication had broken down.  
  
I knelt there in the moonlight, clutching my ribs with one hand   
  
and asked an uncaring sky why the hell I'd left my room that night   
  
without my gun.  
  
Quatre hovered over me like a worried beam of sunlight. I ignored   
  
him. I didn't particularly want to talk to anyone, least of all   
  
someone that would try to pull me out of the guilt and self-  
  
accusation that I was wallowing in. I wanted that guilt, because I   
  
knew it was Imine/I and it was not something that I could ever   
  
lose.  
  
I might have paused, but the world ground inexorably on. The other   
  
guys decided that there was no way we could clean this up or hide   
  
the body, so we'd just have to do some damage control so that no   
  
one would figure out that we'd been there.  
  
I was glad that we weren't going to hide Yan's body. It would make   
  
life difficult when they found it, but at least his parents   
  
wouldn't have to go through the agony of not knowing what happened   
  
to their son.   
  
The guys left me alone while they cleaned up as much evidence as   
  
they could. When they were done, Heero came over to me. I didn't   
  
say anything, and he didn't say anything either. The blood had   
  
long since soaked through my pants and gone completely cold,   
  
numbing my legs. Without even asking if it was ok, he picked me up   
  
and carried me in his arms like I didn't weigh anything, all the   
  
way back to our room.   
  
The fight had been far enough away from the dorms that no one had   
  
been woken by the shooting, or at least if they had, they weren't   
  
out and about in the halls. Heero carried me right into the   
  
bathroom, a very smart move on his part, and managed to squeeze   
  
both of us into the tiny space by putting me in the shower. My   
  
pants and shoes were ruined, not that I cared. I just sat where   
  
he'd put me gently down and stared at the dirty blood that was   
  
dripping from the cuffs of my pants and running down the drain.  
  
I managed to get myself cleaned up. Washing the dirt and the blood   
  
off of my legs and arms went a long way toward making me feel   
  
better, though mental and emotional dirt is unfortunately not   
  
nearly that easy to clean away. I used more of Heero's shampoo to   
  
get the blood out of my hair, and the scent of it comforted me. I   
  
got out of the shower under my own power and made it out to my bed,   
  
where I let Heero take care of my ribs. If I hadn't been so tired,   
  
I might have been worried by how nice Heero was being. As it was,   
  
I really didn't care.   
  
The next morning, I was awakened bright and early by the sound of   
  
sirens. There were cop cars all over the place. Heero was sitting   
  
by my bed in the hard wooden chair that seemed to have become a   
  
permanent fixture of the room.   
  
"How are you feeling?" He asked.  
  
I tried to stretch and winced as my ribs protested loudly. Bruised   
  
but not broken, thank God for small favors. I did manage to dredge   
  
up a little of my normal good humor, and I flashed Heero a grin.   
  
He wasn't impressed. "I've felt better." I said, "But I'll live."   
  
I glanced out the window again. The cop cars appeared to be   
  
multiplying. "They found the mess pretty quickly, didn't they?"   
  
That's right, the mess. Think of it as a mess, not as what's left   
  
of someone you know...  
  
"Yes. Class has been cancelled. I overheard that the school is   
  
bringing in grief counselors."  
  
"Great." I wasn't sure whether to be sarcastic or not. No class   
  
was great, grief counselors... not so great. I would certainly be   
  
named as one of Yan's friends, which meant that they'd probably   
  
come hunting for me, which also meant that they would be very hard   
  
to escape. I didn't want to talk to a damn grief counselor.   
  
Psychologists are right about the level of lawyers, in my opinion.   
  
Both stick to you like a second skin when there's something they   
  
want. The only difference is the type of coin.  
  
Besides, I didn't need anyone to tell me that it wasn't my fault.   
  
Intellectually, I was well aware that it wasn't my fault. I knew   
  
exactly who was at fault, and I was planning to deal with them as   
  
soon as possible.  
  
Try telling THAT to a counselor, though. I'd probably end up in a   
  
room with rubber wallpaper.  
  
I don't know how long I stared out the window at the black and   
  
whites. Heero finally just stood up, sending his chair scraping   
  
across the floor. "Where are you going, Heero?"  
  
"Mission. I was just waiting until you'd woken up."  
  
Despite the emotional load I was trying to deal with, I perked up,   
  
ever so slightly. Heero had waited around to tell me what was   
  
going on himself, instead of just leaving that to Quatre. It   
  
seemed that my little rant at him yesterday had done some good,   
  
after all. Things were looking up. "Okay. Luck be with you." I   
  
grinned.  
  
Heero hesitated for a moment before gently grabbing one of my   
  
shoulders as I started turning away again. I jumped at the   
  
unexpected touch.  
  
"Trowa and I will be back tomorrow." He hesitated...he actually   
  
hesitated. Mark this day on the calendar. "Don't go anywhere   
  
without your gun." Was all he said. Then he abruptly let go and   
  
walked out of the room, shutting the door behind him.  
  
If I hadn't known better, I would have said he was nervous. What   
  
an interesting thought.  
  
centerb* * */b/center  
  
Painkillers did a lot for my ribs, not to mention the bandaging   
  
that Heero had provided. The guy was a regular walking ambulance   
  
service. I lingered in bed for a while, watching the progress of   
  
the police, the arrival of the coroner's unmarked grey van, the   
  
removal of the body in its black polyvinyl bag.  
  
The direction that sight lead made me rather ill, so I got up then.   
  
The shoulder rig was a bit awkward to deal with because of the   
  
bruises, but there was no way I was leaving the room without it   
  
ever again.   
  
My timing was impeccable, as always. As I exited my room, a small   
  
knot of teachers and administrators was rounding the corner. One   
  
of them started to call my name, so I ran in the opposite   
  
direction. Hell no, I wasn't going to talk to the damn shrinks.   
  
They didn't chase me much, thankfully. Within minutes, I was off   
  
school grounds and sitting at a decorative fountain, trying to   
  
decide what to do with my day.  
  
What I wanted to do, according to the thick knot of rage in my   
  
gust, was hunt and kill. Great, but not helpful. I had no idea   
  
where to start. While I ruminated on my options, I used my last   
  
couple hundred new yen coins to buy a small Iunagidon/I for   
  
breakfast. As I picked through it with my chopsticks, I idly read   
  
my way through a discarded classified section that had been   
  
blowing by. My brain needed the occupation.  
  
Purebred puppies for sale, man seeking woman, woman seeking man,   
  
woman seeking woman, man seeking transvestite, discount liquor,   
  
concert by the Skip Cows, finest tattoos, rave hosted by the Black   
  
Thorn Dancers?  
  
I stopped, almost choking on a clump of rice.  
  
That bitch, what's-her-ass, Victoria, had called their little pack   
  
the "Coterie of Ebon Thorns." Now I was seeing Black Thorn Dancers.   
  
Gee, a rave was probably a good place to pick up targets, like a   
  
buffet. And Yan had mentioned a dance?  
  
Sure, it could have been a coincidence. Except for the fact that I   
  
knew no such animal existed.  
  
The gun seemed to grow heavier in the rig as I ripped that section   
  
of the paper out. It was broad daylight, the address was a scant   
  
thirty minute walk (the better to attract innocent high school   
  
students?) and it was a night spot that would be almost empty   
  
right now. I could almost taste the blood in my mouth, a terrible   
  
salty thirst for vengeance. I could have gone back and grabbed   
  
Quatre, I should have gotten backup.  
  
Fuck it, I knew he'd try to talk me out of it. I started walking.  
  
The place was in a quasi-industrial area, where a lot of old   
  
warehouses had gone over to night spots. There were still some   
  
commercial buildings, mostly textile manufacturers. It wanted to   
  
be Shinjuku, it really did, but it had none of the class and all   
  
of the seediness. As seedy as Tokyo could get, that was - nothing   
  
compared to the rest of the world. I found the building behind a   
  
porn shop and surrounded by warehouses full of last season's   
  
clothing. Someone had taken a stab at an exciting paint job. Neon   
  
tubes, dusty and dead, laced the brick and wooden walls, crawling   
  
across the sheet metal roof like sad, thin snakes.  
  
I bought myself a can of Royal Milk Tea from a vending machine in   
  
front of the porn shop and found and innocuous corner, away from   
  
prying eyes, so I could watch the warehouse. Temper and anger had   
  
gotten me this far. Smarts would finish this out.  
  
Two hours later, three men had come and gone furtively at the porn   
  
shop, a struck had taken a load of clothing away, and I needed to   
  
pee so bad I was sure my eyes were turning yellow. Nothing had   
  
stirred in the warehouse, not even so much as a fly buzzed around   
  
the neon tubing.  
  
That was enough for my patience. I'd scouted a couple of egress   
  
points, no one seemed to be moving or paying attention. It was   
  
time to go in. There was a small side door with a rusty lock that   
  
was no trouble to pick. I even had the forethought to lube the   
  
door's dubious hinges with a little bottle of oil I kept just for   
  
that purpose. The door was surprisingly heavy but opened without a   
  
sound. After pulling my cross out so I could watch for tell-tale   
  
glimmers, I slipped inside in the shadows and closed the door   
  
behind me.  
  
It was dark, dusty, and empty inside, full of the ghosts of sweat,   
  
sex, and marijuana. There was a small stage on one side, piled   
  
with coils of sound and light cables. There was nothing else. I   
  
took a perimeter, skirting the bones of old parties, becoming   
  
increasingly uneasy. There was a heavy feeling in the air like an   
  
electrical fire, almost hidden by the scents of old raves - blood   
  
and fear.  
  
This was their feeding ground. I was sure of it.  
  
Two circuits later, I knew the contours of the floor like a map.   
  
They weren't here. No coffins or crates, nothing obvious. This   
  
couldn't be right, it just couldn't. I looked at the tired shaft   
  
of sunlight falling through the only window high in the north wall.   
  
I knew they had to be there. It was a feeling, like a tickle in   
  
the back of my head, familiar from last night. It was Paul, the   
  
one I had owned for a few moments last night.  
  
I followed the shaft of light along the floor. The furthest point   
  
from it, and the place where light would never touch was the stage.   
  
I rapped on it with my knuckles. Hollow, but most stages were. I   
  
had to move the cools of wire aside a few at a time and then   
  
replace them exactly where they'd been after feeling the clear   
  
area with my fingertips.   
  
There was a trap door on the back corner of the stage, thin cracks   
  
and two small holes, finger sized. I was sweating and generally   
  
cursing by the time I got it open, revealing a pit dug in the   
  
foundation and lined with panels of dark wood. I finally had to   
  
resort to my flashlight, shining into all corners before climbing   
  
down the ladder.  
  
The pit smelled like earth and even more blood, fear, and death. I   
  
didn't want to think about why the walls were stained so dark.   
  
There were three huge, wooden chests in a neat row. I would have   
  
normally called them coffins, but in light of the iron strapping   
  
that covered them - well, they just weren't pretty enough.   
  
I sucked in a deep breath of the dank air and drew my gun,   
  
clicking the safety off. There was nothing else to do but take my   
  
balls firmly in hand and kick the lid of the first one open.  
  
It was occupied; my sights rested squarely on a well-muscled chest   
  
with skin like alabaster. I recognized the face instantly, even in   
  
calm repose. "Hello, Paul," I said to the unmoving corpse. For   
  
corpse it truly was, now. Whatever animated it at night had gone   
  
to wherever evil hides from the light. I didn't even have to reach   
  
for the terrible stillness that I normally needed when I had a gun   
  
in my hand. It was already there, taking over my mind and sounding   
  
like bells in my ears.  
  
This wasn't killing. This was justice.  
  
I pulled the trigger. Twice, and there was no way he had a heart   
  
left. My footfalls sounded like an executioners drum as I walked   
  
to the head of the coffin and placed the barrel of my gun right   
  
between his eyes. "And this," I said, "is for Yan," as I blew his   
  
fucking head off. There was nothing left but scraps of bone and a   
  
smear of red and grey.  
  
The world seemed to retreat, or perhaps I turned away from it. Of   
  
its own accord, my body walked to the next chest and kicked it   
  
open. Female, recognizable but unnamed. Like a man in a dream, I   
  
reduced her corpse to a ruin and moved on to the next, another   
  
male. I almost hesitate there; he looked almost alive, he was so   
  
young. There was a small stuffed cat in the coffin with him.  
  
Corpses don't dream, though. If he was here, he was already gone.  
  
Bang. Rest in peace.  
  
I put a fresh clip in my gun without even thinking about it, and   
  
stowed it away before climbing back up the ladder. I'd done the   
  
same motions hundreds of times before; it was what I'd trained to   
  
do, what I was under the exterior. Duo Maxwell goes away, and the   
  
God of Death comes out to play?  
  
I paused on the stage, trying to decide if I should just drop the   
  
door and let them act as their own message. I hadn't gotten them   
  
all by a long shot, but it was a start. A hint of doubt nibbled at   
  
my mind, though.  
  
Tamlin has said the foolproof way was cremation.  
  
It felt like a strange sort of ceremony. I used a pocket knife to   
  
cut a strip of cloth off of my shirt and soaked it with oil. My   
  
hands were shaking and I managed to cut my right palm open, though   
  
I had too much adrenalin coursing through my system to really   
  
notice at the time. The rag lit with just a brush of my lighter.   
  
As soon as the flame touched my fingertips, I dropped it into the   
  
pit, followed by the rest of the flask of oil. The bright little   
  
brand landed on the remains of the unnamed female, lighting her   
  
clothing and flesh like tinder.  
  
Memories and words bubbled up, set off by the smell of flame.   
  
"IIn nomine Patris, et Filii, et Spiritus Sancti, Amen./I" I   
  
murmured, crossing myself.  
  
Then I ran like hell.  
  
centerb* * */b/center  
  
I've always been a responsible arsonist; it was something the Doc   
  
had never managed to train out of me. I watched the warehouse   
  
until smoke began to pour out from under the eaves in earnest -   
  
the small room was no doubt engulfed - and then I called the fire   
  
department, mentioning that I'd seen a tall IGaijin/I in a red   
  
sport's coat running from the scene. Let the police sort out the   
  
remains and the bullets, and follow my red herring. The evidence   
  
would be a mess and the Tokyo homicide team wasn't exactly the   
  
best because they didn't get a lot of practice. Murder happened in   
  
Tokyo, but usually it was never found. Yakuza and now vampires - a   
  
nice, self-cleaning criminal element.  
  
Customers scattered from the porn shop like roaches in a kitchen   
  
when the light comes on as soon as sirens became audible. I took   
  
the hint and ran as well. Sneaking back into school was no problem,   
  
even if it was lit up like a Christmas tree in the name of   
  
"heightened security." My room was dark and empty - Heero wasn't   
  
back yet. I quickly shut the door and collapsed back on to my bed.  
  
Gun, blood, fire. Smell that stirred up childhood memories I   
  
wanted to forget. What the hell had I done?  
  
It was so easy then to think of it as justice, of ending an   
  
unnatural evil. Yet?  
  
I don't know how long I sat in the dark with my thoughts chasing   
  
in self-recriminating circles. My hand throbbed in time with my   
  
heartbeat, bleeding all over my already ruined shirt. Finally, a   
  
soft knock at the door made me jump. Shaking my head, I stood up   
  
and got it, revealing? no one. I looked up and down the hall.   
  
Empty. Great, now I was having auditory hallucinations.  
  
A flash of white caught my eye - a small piece of notepaper on the   
  
floor, right in front of my door. Curious, I picked it up. I could   
  
barely make out a phone number penciled on it?  
  
"Duo?" I jumped back out of habit, but the voice was easy enough   
  
to recognize. Quatre.  
  
Without really thinking about it, I shoved the paper into my   
  
pocket and turned toward him, pasting a smile on my face.  
  
"Where have you been?" He asked, walking up to me and then   
  
wrinkling his nose. "You smell like smoke." He grabbed my hand   
  
before I could stop him, turning my palms up. They were still   
  
covered with soot, blood, and oil. "What have you done, Duo?" He   
  
whispered.  
  
My shoulders started to shake. My eyes burned - from the smoke, I   
  
told myself. Or maybe it was loss, for something I hadn't even   
  
known I had. "Justice, Quatre," I said, "I did justice?" 


	8. Part 7

Acherontia Atropos Part 7   
  
Quatre got me calmed down pretty quick, much to his credit. We   
  
listened to the radio while I got cleaned up enough to pass muster   
  
for dinner, which he wasn't going to let me get out of. The   
  
warehouse was contained - it was a total loss, but no other   
  
building had been damaged. Good, one thing off my mind.  
  
My hand still hadn't stopped bleeding when it was chow time, so   
  
Quatre stevedored me over to the school nurse, even coming up with   
  
a believable story about how I'd injured myself. Some tissue glue   
  
and bandages later, I was good as new and we were trooping our way   
  
across the lobby, toward the cafeteria.  
  
We passed by a lime green plastic public phone, and something   
  
niggled at the back of my mind. Phone?oh yeah!  
  
The little paper slip. I pulled it out of my pants pocket. It was   
  
looking a little less than white now, more of a kind of dusty gray   
  
from all the lint it had picked up in my pocket, and it was half   
  
crumpled from me sitting and walking. I grabbed the arm of   
  
Quatre's jacket and pulled him over to the phone.  
  
"What are you doing?" Quatre looked at me owlishly, but he didn't   
  
bother to resist.  
  
I tossed the paper at him. "Someone slipped this under my door   
  
shortly after I got back from this afternoon's fun and games."  
  
Quatre caught the crinkled paper and did his best to smooth it out   
  
until it looked fairly neat again. He turned it over and over   
  
until the faint penciling, which had somehow miraculously survived   
  
through several hours in my pants pocket, caught his eye. "Who's   
  
the number for?"  
  
"No idea. I figure I could give it a call, though. It might be   
  
some angsty girl, but I doubt it - not enough pink, yanno?" I   
  
started searching my pockets for some change to feed the phone. No   
  
luck. Quatre, ever helpful, produced some and gave it to me.   
  
"Thanks, man. What's the number?"  
  
He read it off to me, pausing several times so he could decipher   
  
the faint traces of pencil. When I had it all dialed, we waited.   
  
It rang, which was a good sign, I supposed. And rang. And rang.   
  
And rang. After about ten times, I got ready to just hang up so I   
  
could save Quatre's change... not that he was hurting for the   
  
money or anything. I just figured that I could borrow it off of   
  
him again some other time.   
  
On ring number eleven, there was a click, and a woman spoke. She   
  
had a nice voice, fairly. A good phone voice. It was obvious that   
  
she said that one phrase a lot, though - she sounded bored.   
  
"Carmelita's. Tell me what dreams you'd like me to make true."  
  
I'd been expecting a lot of things, but that certainly wasn't one   
  
of them.  
  
There was a lengthy pause. "Hello?" she said, with a little more   
  
animation in her voice.  
  
I managed to gather up my scattered brain, took a deep breath, and   
  
launched myself into the conversation. "Er, hi. Sorry, miss, you   
  
caught me off guard." There was silence on the other end of the   
  
phone, which could mean that she'd hung up. Just in case she   
  
hadn't, I bravely forged on. "Uh...My name is Duo. I was given   
  
this number to call and no one told me why, so I'm hoping that you   
  
know."  
  
Pause pause pause.  
  
"Miss? Are you still there?"  
  
"Yes." The woman said, in a normal speaking voice. "I don't know   
  
what you're talking about -- wait."  
  
Weird sounds started coming out of the phone. I think she'd put   
  
her hand over the mouthpiece, but I thought I could hear muffled   
  
voices. Two women. After a moment, someone else came on the line.   
  
"Hello?"  
  
"Yes?"  
  
"You said your name is Duo, right?"  
  
"Yep."  
  
"Good. Can you meet with me tomorrow?"  
  
"What?"  
  
"Tomorrow, five o'clock. The store is on Aoyama, between the   
  
bookshop and Lucky-chan toy department store. Seven blocks south   
  
of the train station. You can't miss it. I'll see you then." The   
  
phone went dead. I couldn't help it. I did that stupid ass stare-  
  
at-the-phone-in-shock thing.   
  
"Duo, what was that about?"   
  
I hung up the phone. "We're supposed to meet a woman tomorrow at   
  
five." I looked at Quatre. "Want to be my backup?"  
  
He looked a little surprised. I don't normally ask for backup, but   
  
this was getting past the point of strange. "Sure."  
  
"Wufei may be back. We should bring a third, so that would be   
  
convenient."  
  
"Trowa and Heero are still out," he said.  
  
"I figured as much. Three should be enough, if we can get Wufei."  
  
I reached over and pulled the white card out of Quatre's hands,   
  
then crumpled it up the rest of the way and tossed it at a garbage   
  
can. Swoosh. Go me.   
  
centerb* * */b/center  
  
The next morning, most of my guilt and uncertainty had receded to   
  
a barely perceptible ache, joining the throbbing mass of Shit I   
  
Have To Deal With Some Day in the back of my mind. It'd dreamed   
  
about Yan and blood in the moonlight. That had done a lot for my   
  
getting my rage levels back up.  
  
I was right in the middle of brushing my teeth when they started   
  
knocking, calling my name through the door. I was only half   
  
dressed, and my hair wasn't even braided. I didn't wait around to   
  
see if they would actually unlock the door and come in; I just   
  
grabbed my shirt and my hairbrush, stuck the Browning .40 in the   
  
back of my pants waistband, opened the window, and went right out   
  
onto the ledge that lined the building with my toothbrush still   
  
clamped between my lips. Being on the third floor was no problem   
  
at all. I pulled the window shut behind me and ran along the ledge   
  
like a cat until I got to the window that I was pretty sure   
  
belonged to Wufei's room. It would be a perfect place to escape to,   
  
since I didn't think he was back yet, and he had one of the few   
  
singles on the floor. The other option was Quatre and Trowa's room,   
  
but that was on the other side of the hall. I just didn't feel   
  
like taking the detour.   
  
The window locks were pathetically easy to open. I don't know why   
  
the school even bothered with them. Then I was sweeping the   
  
curtains aside and pulling the window shut behind me. Time elapsed,   
  
thirty seconds. Damn I'm good.  
  
"What do you want, Duo?"  
  
"YAI!" I yelled...well, let's be honest. I yelped. I didn't like   
  
being startled. "Just escaping the leeches, Wu." I tossed my shirt   
  
and hairbrush onto the desk and headed toward the bathroom. Wufei   
  
was laying on the single bed with one arm thrown over his eyes.   
  
"Back a little early, aren't you? Not that I'm complaining." He   
  
wasn't wearing a shirt, and I had to force myself to look away   
  
when my gaze lingered on his muscles just a little too long for my   
  
comfort.  
  
"My enemies were weaker than I had thought. I finished them   
  
quickly." Wufei said. He sounded very tired, and therefore, very   
  
grouchy. Not that Wufei wasn't always grouchy. Mornings just make   
  
it worse. "I just got back a few hours ago and was attempting to   
  
catch a little rest. Duo, when precisely did all hell break   
  
loose?" He made the question sound accusatory, like it was somehow   
  
my fault that the school suddenly looked like it was hosting a cop   
  
convention. I hated it when people automatically assumed that any   
  
trouble was caused by me in some way. Never mind the fact that   
  
this time, it was.  
  
I finished brushing my teeth, then rinsed my toothbrush. Life   
  
seems a bit brighter when you're feeling minty fresh, and when I   
  
bounded back out of the bathroom to get my hairbrush, my cheer   
  
wasn't as forced as it had been. It had also helped that I still   
  
had some of the painkillers left, so my ribs weren't hurting me   
  
too badly. "Well, you don't have to worry about class today, Wu-  
  
man. It's been cancelled."  
  
"Cancelled? What happened while I was gone?" Wufei sat up, loose   
  
black hair trailing in front of his face. He'd lost his ponytail   
  
holder somewhere, maybe on the mission. Who knew.  
  
"Vampire attack." I said simply before I plopped down in Wufei's   
  
chair and started brushing my hair out. The Browning dug into my   
  
back and I pulled it out of my waistband and set it on the desk. A   
  
gun in the waistband might look cool, but it was uncomfortable as   
  
all hell, because no matter where you put it, it'll dig into you   
  
when you sit.   
  
Wufei eyed the gun as if he was expecting it to jump up and bite   
  
him, and he was trying to decide what martial arts move to kill it   
  
with. I guess he was a little surprised because he hadn't seen it   
  
before. "Well, Duo, maybe you'd like to start at the beginning."  
  
He was so cute when he was trying to control his temper. For once,   
  
instead of poking at him, I just told him everything as   
  
emotionlessly as possible. He was surprisingly calm about my   
  
little solo hunt once I assured him that I'd been evidence   
  
conscious - he just gave me the same riot act about going in   
  
without backup that Quatre had read off twelve hours before. Of it   
  
all, I Idid/I leave out the entire bit about the weird energy   
  
that I had felt around the vampires, since I wasn't sure what it   
  
was or even if I had been imagining it. When I got done, I was   
  
still trying to get the knots out of my hair, and Wufei had   
  
rearranged himself into a lotus position and was watching me   
  
thoughtfully. "How did you make the vampire follow your orders?"   
  
He asked. He was taking the entire thing a lot more calmly than   
  
I'd been expecting, but then again, Wufei could be one cool   
  
cucumber.  
  
I grimaced internally. I don't know why I had thought I could keep   
  
something from Wufei. He was the first one that had asked, though,   
  
so I'd been hoping that he would just let it slide. "I don't   
  
really know, Wu. I can't think of any way to explain it without   
  
sounding all mystical and shit."  
  
"Then go ahead and sound mystical." Wufei snorted. "I think I   
  
should be able to get the gist of what you're saying."  
  
I blew a long breath out and went back to attacking my hair. "When   
  
Yan died, he released some kind of...energy, power, magic, I don't   
  
know what to call it...into the air. It ran right to me like I was   
  
a magnet and filled me up until I thought I was going to explode.   
  
I somehow used it to actually take control of the vampire and make   
  
it let me go. It escaped almost immediately, though."  
  
Wufei didn't say anything. He seemed to be thinking pretty hard. I   
  
shrugged and went on brushing. Wufei was a smart guy, smarter than   
  
me. I figured that if there was any good explanation for what I'd   
  
said, he'd come up with it. He didn't come out with an answer,   
  
though. Instead, he just said, "Let me think about this." and lay   
  
back down.  
  
"Think all you want. If you figure it out, tell me." I'd finally   
  
gotten all the knots out of my hair. Automatically, my fingers   
  
started braiding it. "Oh yeah, Wu... you wanna help Quatre be my   
  
backup when I meet the woman today?"  
  
"You're still going?"  
  
"I said I would. Besides... this could be something important." I   
  
tied off the end of my braid with the elastic band that I'd   
  
wrapped around the handle of the brush.   
  
"It could also be a trap."  
  
"All the more reason to go in armed for bear."  
  
He sat up, brushing his hair away from his face. "I'll go with   
  
you."  
  
"You want one of the guns? Heero left the extra Browning. Guess he   
  
didn't think he'd run into blood suckers on the mission."  
  
"No thanks. I'll stick with my sword."  
  
I shrugged. "I'll take it along anyway. It never hurts to have a   
  
backup weapon." I grabbed my shirt and pulled it on. "Hey, Wu?"  
  
"Yes?" He was starting to get the   
  
tired/grouchy/annoyed/potentially homicidal Wufei note in his   
  
voice.  
  
"Can I hide out in here until it's time to go?"  
  
Wufei blew a long sigh out. "Just try to shut up long enough to   
  
let me take a nap."  
  
***  
  
"Duo, are you SURE that this is the right place?" Quatre asked.  
  
Wufei just stayed quiet, but he had a wild look in his eye that I   
  
wasn't sure I liked.  
  
Not that I blamed him. Whatever kind of place Carmelita's was, it   
  
definitely wasn't for family fun. The all leather window display   
  
made that pretty obvious. It managed to look seedier than the porn   
  
shop by the ex-warehouse, and that was quite the accomplishment. I   
  
thought places like that were in violation of Tokyo building codes   
  
or something. It was just begging to be deported to Times Square   
  
in New York City.  
  
I wiggled my shoulders underneath my black windbreaker, trying to   
  
settle the straps of my shoulder rig a little more comfortably.   
  
I'd managed to convince the guys to leave for town a little early   
  
so we could stop and go accessory shopping for the new toys. It   
  
was perhaps the strangest transformation that Tokyo had undergone   
  
thanks to Oz putting a base in the middle of the city. There'd   
  
been an influx of foreigners, and between them and the military   
  
they somehow got the government to legalize guns, though getting   
  
permits was still murder. Suddenly, there were gun shops, and the   
  
occasional little old lady with a Derringer in her purse. It made   
  
my life easier, but I still didn't like it one bit.  
  
But I digress. Quatre's holster hadn't been the right size for the   
  
Browning at all, and mine could have fit better. He had picked up   
  
an inter-pants holster. After I saw that, I got one for myself,   
  
too, for later. We'd actually bought the holsters, though the   
  
original plan (at least in my mind) had been to steal them. I   
  
decided on second thought that it wouldn't be a good idea when I   
  
noticed that the owner of the shop was watching me closely... and   
  
that he was cleaning a rifle. I'd also bought a black windbreaker   
  
from the clothing store next to the gun shop - it had nice big   
  
pockets for more ammo, since there is no such thing as too much   
  
ammo. Besides, I needed something to hide the shoulder rig with.   
  
Walking down a busy street with my guns showing just didn't seem   
  
like a good idea. At least it was still cool enough to wear a   
  
jacket. I had no idea what I was going to do once we hit late   
  
spring. Melt, probably.  
  
So that brought us back to the present. Carmelita's. The all   
  
leather display. The blacked out side windows. The peeling paint   
  
on the outer walls. The bright red neon announcing the name. What   
  
a place. Oh boy.  
  
"Yeah, I'm sure this is the right place." I said. "The lady   
  
answered the phone with 'Carmelita's.' And this is the address   
  
that I was given." I eyed the door with a great deal of   
  
trepidation. I'm not going to say I'm innocent. Not by a long shot.   
  
But considering that I hadn't even gotten all the way home, I   
  
really didn't think I needed to know about the weirder varieties   
  
quite yet. I took a deep breath. "Ready to go in?"  
  
"I'm never going to be ready." I heard Wufei mutter.   
  
Quatre wisely said nothing. He nervously tugged at his own jacket,   
  
a white one that went with his light pink shirt and did a good job   
  
of concealing the Beretta, which he'd tucked into the small of his   
  
back. I'd asked Wufei if he was armed, and he'd said yes. God only   
  
knew what he was armed with, though, considering he didn't have   
  
his sword with him. It would have been a little too obvious. I was   
  
afraid to ask again.  
  
"Here we go." I said under my breath, and pulled the door to the   
  
little shop of forbidden things open.  
  
It was like walking into a cave. Well, kind of. Maybe not. It was   
  
certainly cave-like in the fact that it was dim and fairly cool   
  
inside. That was where the resemblance ended, though. Heavy metal   
  
music pounded through the shop so loudly that if Quatre and Wufei   
  
said something when   
  
we first entered, there was no way I could have heard them. Base   
  
thumped along the floor and buzzed through my bones. The air was   
  
chokingly thick with some kind of musky incense that I think was   
  
supposed to lend it a sensual, dangerous air. It was just cloying.   
  
And there were other things under the heavy scent, faint whiffs of   
  
blood and other bodily fluids that I really didn't care to think   
  
about.  
  
Wufei was doing his best not to look at anything. Quatre was   
  
openly staring at a glass case that contained some whips, several   
  
sets of handcuffs that glinted in the harsh light of the display,   
  
and several...somethings. I wasn't even sure what the hell those   
  
were. Quatre gave me a wide-eyed look, half-shouting to be heard   
  
over the music. "Duo?" he pointed at something that could have   
  
been underwear. Maybe. If you turned your head and squinted. "Is   
  
it anatomically possible to put on something like that?"  
  
I did my best not to stare. Yeah, that's me, Duo, the well-  
  
traveled Gundam Pilot that's seen it all. Right. "Hell if I know!"   
  
I yelled. Someone tapped me on the shoulder and I spun around, my   
  
hand automatically going for my gun. Me? Jumpy? Of course not.   
  
The only way the woman in front of me could have worn less was if   
  
she stripped completely. I kid not. I hastily directed my   
  
attention to her face. She had a nice face, though she was wearing   
  
way too much eye make up. It made her look tired, instead of   
  
achieving the desired effect. Whatever that was. Her hair was very,   
  
very blonde, obviously a color that came out of a bottle, and it   
  
really offset her chocolaty skin tone.   
  
"Er... sorry, ma'am. What can I do for you?" I grinned disarmingly.  
  
The woman gave me a hard look, the expression on her face changing   
  
from something that had been almost predatory to nearly maternal   
  
concern. Put with the rest of her getup, it looked too weird for   
  
words. "Aren't you a little young to be in here?" She said sharply,   
  
pointing a finger at me. She had on fake fingernails. They were   
  
painted bright red.  
  
I backed up a step so that her fingernail wouldn't impale me, and   
  
shrugged helplessly. "We're supposed to meet someone here."  
  
"A lot of guys your age are supposed to meet someone here. So you   
  
met someone. Now get out and come back after you've reached   
  
puberty." She gestured toward the door and moved forward,   
  
obviously planning on chasing us out, if need be.   
  
I dodged. "My name is Duo. I called yesterday. One of you ladies   
  
told me to come down here for a meeting. I'm not joking!"  
  
Whatever the magic word in my spiel had been, it stopped the woman   
  
cold. "Duo, huh?"  
  
I nodded. That's me. Ever helpful.  
  
"She didn't say anything about any friends. Just one guy named   
  
Duo." The woman crossed her arms, mercifully covering her breasts.   
  
I had been starting to get embarrassed on her behalf.  
  
I risked a glance back at Wufei and Quatre. Quatre was blushing.   
  
Wufei looked like he was going to faint. He hissed at me. "Don't   
  
you dare leave us alone out here!"  
  
"I'm not going anywhere without my backup, ma'am. I hope that   
  
won't be a problem."  
  
The woman glared at us, then finally shrugged. "It's Carmen's own   
  
business if she wants to take on three boys. Follow me." I let out   
  
a soft sigh of relief and followed her, doing my best not to look   
  
at her butt. I'll never understand how someone can stand wearing a   
  
thong. Can you say "butt floss?" Dear god.  
  
At least we had a name now, though. Carmen. I was hoping that was   
  
who I talked to. If not, we were in big trouble.  
  
She led us quickly through the little shop of horrors, which was   
  
nice, because it didn't give us a chance to look at anything else.   
  
The nice little conga line we formed followed the woman down a set   
  
of steps covered with extremely worn carpet and into a long, bare   
  
hallway. The hall was white and lit starkly with several bare   
  
light bulbs. The paint was peeling badly, revealing an older   
  
coating of grey paint beneath it. Graffiti covered every available   
  
surface, but it had the flat look of something put there for   
  
effect, as opposed to vandalism. There were doors on every side,   
  
covered with the same crappy white paint as the rest of the hall.   
  
Someone was moaning behind one of the doors. I really didn't want   
  
to know.  
  
When we were almost at the end of the hall, the woman stopped and   
  
opened a door. "Go in. I'll get Carmen." She shut the door behind   
  
us.  
  
Silently, all three of us took in the room. It was small, no more   
  
than four meters by four meters. There was a bed along one of the   
  
walls, and it took up most of the room. The light was provided by   
  
a dim, unshaded light bulb, and there were all sorts of   
  
interesting looking hooks on the ceiling. There was also a chest   
  
against the wall opposite the bed. It had faded red hearts   
  
stenciled on it. That was it. The only places to sit were the bed   
  
and on top of the chest. All three of us opted to stand.  
  
Wufei glared at me. "What kind of place have you brought us to,   
  
Duo?"  
  
"Sorry! I didn't know." I shrugged helplessly. "You have to admit,   
  
it's certainly educational." I winked at Quatre while Wufei   
  
sputtered.   
  
There was a scuffling sound outside the door, and the knob turned.   
  
As nonchalantly as possible, I tucked my hand into my jacket for   
  
easier access to my gun. Call me crazy, but I was nervous. The   
  
door opened, and woman entered.  
  
The best word I could think of to describe her is "statuesque."   
  
She was tall, she was beautiful, and even better for my personal   
  
comfort, she was wearing a bathrobe. It was dark green, threadbare,   
  
and very tattered, which looked odd when compared to her heavy eye   
  
make up, her carefully done up curly brown hair, and her pale skin.   
  
But it was a hell of a lot better than what the woman upstairs had   
  
been wearing, so I was definitely not going to complain, even if   
  
it looked a little odd. Without hesitating, she padded over to me.   
  
She wasn't wearing any shoes, and she was still at least a foot   
  
taller than me. "You're Duo." She said.  
  
"Yeah. How'd you know?"  
  
The woman held out a hand and I hesitantly took it. Her handshake   
  
was firm and business-like, nothing more. She smiled, and suddenly   
  
the hair on my arms stood on end. "I'm always happy to meet   
  
another practitioner of the Art." 


	9. Part 8

Acherontia Atropos Part 8   
  
Author's note: I am well aware that this could be construed as a   
  
negative portrayal of "witches". However, if you're reading this   
  
and feel like you should be offended by me not giving everyone a   
  
shiny and happy view of witchcraft, please consider: Not all   
  
witches are the same. (And that doesn't even begin to touch on the   
  
fact that this is an alternate universe.) Thank you.  
  
* * *  
  
"I don't know what you're talking about." I said. It was the   
  
honest response, considering what kind of place she was working at   
  
-- I wasn't sure I wanted to know what kind of art she was talking   
  
about. She gave me a penetrating look, but she let the comment   
  
pass without saying anything else.  
  
For a moment, it was a normal handshake. Then the hair on my arms   
  
and the back of my neck abruptly stood up and did the hula. I   
  
pulled away as quickly as I could without being too rude. My hand   
  
was tingling, like the pins and needles feeling you get when your   
  
foot falls asleep. Carmen smiled at me. "Are you alright?" She   
  
asked pleasantly.  
  
"Just peachy." I waited until she turned her attention to Wufei,   
  
and then glanced at my hand. Apparently the tissue glue hadn't   
  
worked quite as well as I'd thought, because I'd bled through the   
  
bandage, nice and fresh. I didn't like this one bit. "I'm guessing   
  
that you're Carmen, right?" I kept my voice neutral. Carmen was   
  
not making it on my good list so far. People that make me bleed   
  
never get on the 'nice' list, no matter what their excuse.  
  
She idly rubbed the soft fabric of her robe over her breast.   
  
"That's correct. I'm the one you talked to on the phone. You   
  
didn't say anything about bringing friends."   
  
"Sorry. I never go anywhere without my backup. It's a healthy   
  
habit to have." I shrugged, not sorry at all.   
  
"Don't trust me?"  
  
"It's been a bad week." I stuffed my hands in my pockets. "And I   
  
don't have a reason to. I didn't even know your name until   
  
now...the only reason I knew to call here was because left me this   
  
phone number as an anonymous tip. Not exactly confidence   
  
inspiring."  
  
"I see. I'm sorry. I thought that you would have been warned about   
  
this." She kept rubbing. Up and down. Up and down. There was a   
  
bump under her fingers, which I presumed was her nipple. I was   
  
getting a really funny feeling in the pit of my stomach, and I was   
  
pretty sure it had nothing to do with whatever hormones were   
  
flowing in my veins. It wasn't that kind of funny feeling.  
  
"It would have been nice." I muttered.   
  
Carmen either didn't hear me or just ignored me. She offered her   
  
hand-the one that wasn't busy-to Wufei. "And you are?"  
  
"Wufei." he said grudgingly, keeping his eyes firmly fixed on   
  
Carmen's right ear. He looked like he was putting some serious   
  
effort into fighting off a blush. Not that I wasn't fighting off   
  
one too. He took her hand and shook it. Nothing happened. Maybe it   
  
had all been in my head. Right.  
  
When she was done with Wufei, she turned her attention to Quatre.   
  
He smiled at her. "My name's Quatre. It's a pleasure to meet you."   
  
He offered his hand to her. That's Quatre. Always pleasant and   
  
polite, never mind the fact that we were in the ever so slightly   
  
odoriferous basement of the   
  
bondage and leather hut and shut in a tiny room with someone   
  
that...well, I wasn't quite sure what the hell Carmen was.  
  
Strangely enough, Carmen didn't shake Quatre's hand. She only   
  
stared at him, her mouth compressed into a thin line as if he'd   
  
just tried to hand her a dead rat and she was too polite to say   
  
anything about it. After a moment, he gave up and tucked his hand   
  
back into his pocket, his smile becoming faintly puzzled.   
  
"Now that the intros are done, would you like to tell us WHY we're   
  
here?" I asked. I wasn't exactly the most polite person on earth,   
  
but I wasn't normally not rude, either. Right then, my nerves were   
  
understandably getting a little frayed.  
  
She glanced at us, then back at the sagging bed. "Wouldn't you   
  
like to sit?"  
  
In perfect unison, we shook our heads. "We're fine."  
  
Carmen shrugged and sat. The bed made some interesting squealing   
  
sounds and sagged a little more. "You're here because my coven was   
  
given a message through one of Iour/I anonymous contacts that   
  
we were to keep an eye out for you and help you."   
  
"Coven?" I raised my eyebrows.  
  
Carmen looked surprised. It wasn't necessarily good, though,   
  
because that meant that I knew less than she was assuming I knew.   
  
And I'd just informed her of it. Go me. Give the woman you don't   
  
know the advantage. She crossed her legs and the bathrobe rode up,   
  
exposing a generous amount of thigh. A real generous amount. "A   
  
coven is a group of witches." The robe slipped even more. She   
  
definitely wasn't wearing underwear.  
  
I suddenly developed a whole new interest in the molded out paint   
  
of the wall just to the left of her ear. "Witches. I see now. It   
  
all makes perfect sense." I wondered if there was solidified   
  
sarcasm dripping on the floor yet.  
  
"You really don't know anything, do you."  
  
I sighed, going beyond the point of exasperation. I was suddenly   
  
just very tired. "Look, I just found out last week that vampires   
  
exist. Be nice." Yeah, I actually said 'be nice' to a woman that   
  
would belong on the list of people that my mommy warned me about.   
  
Or would have warned me about if she'd lived that long. Whatever.  
  
I didn't think it was possible, but she managed to look more   
  
surprised. "But I thought..." she gave me a sharp glance. "You   
  
didn't shake hands right, though..." Her voice trailed off on a   
  
bemused note.  
  
My hand was still tingling. "What the hell did you do?"  
  
"I read your aura." She shrugged, like she'd just said that she   
  
baked a cake or something. No, no, nothing weird happening here.   
  
Just another day at the shop. Sure thing. "You have one of the   
  
strongest auras I've ever seen. Normally, only people that   
  
practice the Art have that sort of feel to them."   
  
I had to ask. "The Art of what?"   
  
"Magic of course."  
  
Yeah. Magic. Of course. It all made perfect sense now. NOT.  
  
My internal comment must have been pretty obvious, because Carmen   
  
coughed politely. "Magic does exist, you know. You should know,   
  
actually. You have more than your fair share."  
  
"Sure." Whatever. I didn't feel like arguing. A real first for me.   
  
Carmen wisely let the subject drop. "I'll begin at the beginning,   
  
then. I am a member of the local coven of witches. The woman that   
  
brought you down, Hara, is also a member of the coven." There was   
  
a kind of odd note in her voice. It sounded like...jealousy?  
  
"She's higher rank than you, isn't she." I glanced up. It made   
  
sense. Call it a hunch.  
  
"Yes." Carmen's eyes widened. "I'm fairly new to this area, and   
  
I'm not terribly powerful. Hara is one of the high witches. High   
  
witches are like the ruling council." She explained.  
  
I had to admit, while this sounded like something out of a role-  
  
playing game, it was kind of interesting if you could suspend your   
  
disbelief long enough. Considering the events of the last few days,   
  
I didn't have a lot of disbelief left to suspend.  
  
"What do you do?" Quatre asked. I glanced at him, and he twitched   
  
on shoulder. I guess I wasn't the only one that was finding the   
  
little lesson interesting.  
  
"We do a lot of things, Quatre." a small, dangerous smile quirked   
  
Carmen's lips, and she ran two of her fingernails up her thigh.   
  
They glittered in the stark light. "We have to keep our power base   
  
stable and protected, and we need to repel any outside encroachers,   
  
like the vampires that you seem to be having problems with. That   
  
is probably why we were contacted. We have a common enemy." Her   
  
hand moved off of her thigh and she absently picked at a loose   
  
thread that was hanging off of one of her sleeves. "For the most   
  
part, covens are simply interested in staying hidden."  
  
"Why?" I asked.  
  
"Do you have any idea what the general public would do if they   
  
knew witches were real? Look how well you're taking it."  
  
She did have a point.  
  
Carmen smirked. It wasn't an expression that I liked. "If you keep   
  
playing, Duo, you're going to find that there is quite a lot   
  
that's kept hidden from the population in general."  
  
The superior attitude thing just pissed me off. "If I'm lucky, I   
  
can kill the vampires and go back to being blissfully unaware." I   
  
said.   
  
She actually laughed at me. "I don't think you'll be able to. Once   
  
you're in the field, everyone's going to want to try you   
  
out...especially considering that interesting aura of yours." It   
  
suddenly struck me how small the room was. Great. Claustrophobia,   
  
too.  
  
I shrugged a nonchalantly as I could. "Yeah, we'll see. Until then,   
  
can we just cut to the chase? Dinner's coming and I'm hungry." A   
  
lie. I didn't think I'd feel like eating when I got back to the   
  
school. I had way too much on my plate already.  
  
"I have a client coming anyway." Carmen shrugged, the movement   
  
oddly fluid. "You will need my help to find the vampires."  
  
I nodded, deciding that she didn't need to know that I'd already   
  
found a couple on my own. I doubted I'd be that lucky again anyway.   
  
"Probably. We were given an idea of how to kill them, but we don't   
  
know how to look for them."  
  
"Hunt them during the day. You just have to find their resting   
  
place."  
  
"Somehow, I don't think they're going to have a little neon sign   
  
that says 'resting place here.'" I said.   
  
"Correct." Carmen hesitated, tapping her chin with one long,   
  
obviously fake fingernail. Hers were bright, metallic blue. "I can   
  
try to locate them for you, if you can bring me something that   
  
belongs to one of their victims." She saw my confused look. "The   
  
vampires would have drank the person's   
  
blood...so a small part of that person remains inside them. I can   
  
try to locate that, if I have an object I can take an impression   
  
from. Actual blood would work best, but I doubt you'd have access   
  
to any. I'd rather not try unless it's necessary, though. It takes   
  
a great deal of energy, and could attract the attention of the   
  
master vampire." She looked a little nervous, which was odd.  
  
"Whoa, slow down. Master vampires?"  
  
Carmen sighed. "Just like there are greater and lesser witches,   
  
there are greater and lesser vampires. Master vampires control the   
  
lesser ones, to a certain degree. Masters are very powerful. The   
  
only reason vampires would even hunt together is because there is   
  
a Master forcing them to cooperate."  
  
"Great." I wanted to moan or bang my head against the wall. So we   
  
were dealing with five normal vampires, plus the other EXTRA one   
  
that I had hoped I was imagining. Shit. Not my week. "We need to   
  
find these things, Carmen. They're eating high school kids. It's   
  
bad publicity, and if someone figures out that vampires exist,   
  
they might start wondering about the other stuff."  
  
Carmen paled a little. Ah, a palpable hit. I am so good.   
  
"So come on...you help us, we'll kill them and then that's one   
  
less worry you have."  
  
"I can't." She shook her head and looked at me, wide-eyed. "I said   
  
that maybe I could...but...I'm low in the coven. I can't pull that   
  
much power without permission."  
  
I sighed. "Then get permission. This is important. You don't want   
  
anyone to find out about you witches, right? It's in your best   
  
interest." I gave her my best charming grin.  
  
It must have been my sincere, boyish charm that wowed her. Yeah,   
  
me and Christopher Robin. "I'll do what I can. It's going to take   
  
a couple days, though. I can talk to Hara right away, but it'll   
  
take time to contact the rest of the high ones."  
  
"Fine. If that's as good as it gets, I'm not going to push it."  
  
Carmen hesitated, and actually started nibbling on the end of her   
  
fingernail. I had the insane urge to tell her not to--that nail   
  
polish of hers was probably radioactive if you went by color. Not   
  
a good thing to ingest. "There's something else you can try, while   
  
I'm trying to get permission."  
  
"What's that?"  
  
"Contact the Master of the City."  
  
"The what?" I could feel another lesson coming on. My brain   
  
protested loudly that it was already too full. I told it to shut   
  
up.   
  
"The Master of Tokyo." Carmen kept nibbling at her fingernail. It   
  
was starting to get on my nerves. "Most vampires are set up like   
  
my coven is...they try to keep to themselves and out of the public   
  
eye. They aren't going to like a bunch of rogues moving in and   
  
killing, because it will definitely attract attention to them. We   
  
don't deal with the vampires often, so I don't know who the Master   
  
is, or where you can find him...but he's the Master that rules all   
  
of the vampires in Tokyo. We're in his territory."  
  
Yippee. More vampires. But no. These were good guys. Right. "No   
  
idea where he is. No clues to find him. That isn't real helpful."   
  
"If you want to meet him, he'll find out, and if he wants to see   
  
you, he'll find you himself." Carmen shrugged. "I'm just saying   
  
that he might be able to help you."  
  
"Alright, I'm going to make a concrete rule, right here." I said,   
  
images of corpses with their throats torn out dancing in my head.   
  
"Normally, I hate to generalize, but this is an exception.   
  
Vampires are monsters. I'm not going to deal with them." I felt a   
  
smile creep onto my lips, one that felt a lot like my special   
  
Deathscythe-piloting grin. "I'm going to kill them."  
  
"Have it your way." There was something very final in Carmen's   
  
words. "I'll talk to the high witches."  
  
"You do that." I pushed away from the wall and dug through my   
  
pockets until I found an old receipt. Why the hell had I paid so   
  
much for a damn bowl of ramen? I must have been pretty flippin'   
  
hungry. Whatever. I found a pen in my other pocket and wrote down   
  
the phone number for our emergency landline. Heero's a useful   
  
little guy to have around. "When you hear something back, call   
  
me."  
  
She took the paper and nodded, tucking the slip away...somewhere.   
  
"I'll do my best."  
  
"Thanks." I turned to leave. Quatre and Wufei were already half   
  
out the door. Perfect exit. The effect got kind of ruined, however,   
  
when Carmen grabbed my arm and I yelped. I really hate getting   
  
startled.  
  
Carmen let go of my arm as quickly as she'd grabbed it, shaking   
  
her hand like she'd just gotten burned. "You say you have no   
  
magic." Her voice was a little amused.  
  
"Someone told me I have an affinity for the dead. I can go for   
  
that. " I shrugged. "But not magic. That's too weird."  
  
Carmen's eyes widened, the narrowed. "It's more than that, Duo."   
  
She stood and leaned forward until her lips were nearly touching   
  
my ear. It reminded me uncomfortably of Victoria the Vampire.   
  
"Stop denying what you are, or something bad will happen to you."  
  
It wasn't a threat. At least I didn't think it was. Carmen laughed   
  
very softly, and kissed my ear.  
  
I took a very deliberate step away from her, and then another and   
  
another before I turned and walked quickly out of the tiny room,   
  
shutting the door firmly behind me. I wasn't running away.  
  
Really, I wasn't.  
  
centerb* * */b/center  
  
After our little encounter with Carmen, we went back to the dorms   
  
with all possible speed. I guess we were just eager to get back to   
  
a place where things made sense. It was pretty sad when you want   
  
to be in your dorm room because it was better than the alternative.  
  
The alternative had been pretty nasty. It was dark by the time we   
  
emerged from the basement of Carmelita's. I'd thought it was   
  
creepy in the daytime; at night, it was flat out scary. There were   
  
all sorts of interesting people gathered up on the main floor,   
  
most of them wearing long coats and hats with the brims pulled low   
  
to cover their eyes. When we pushed our way through that crowd, a   
  
few of them pressed in a little too close for comfort. At first,   
  
we all tried to ignore them. Then, some enterprising little soul   
  
grabbed Wufei's butt. I'd never heard Wufei make a sound quite   
  
like that before.  
  
I'd also never heard anyone make sounds quite like what that guy   
  
made when Wufei snap kicked him in the crotch, then applied a   
  
swift knife hand to the side of his neck.  
  
Hara showed up right after that and cleared a path so she could   
  
throw us out of the shop. It came as something of a relief. Hey,   
  
but what other fifteen year old could say he's been kicked out of   
  
an S&M shop by a witch?  
  
As I watched Hara's barely-clad derriere retreat back into the   
  
shop, I couldn't help but hope that Carmen was kidding about her   
  
being a high witch. It didn't seem right, somehow. Not that Carmen   
  
really fit my idea of a witch, either.   
  
Wufei was understandably kind of upset once we'd gotten back to   
  
the dorms, though he'd managed to maintain an even strain until   
  
then. Quatre went right to his room; I think he wanted to think   
  
about things. That left me to soothe Wufei's extremely ruffled --   
  
er -- tail feathers, and as much as I like Wufei, that still   
  
wasn't exactly quite my idea of a good time. It took nearly two   
  
hours to get him calmed down enough for a coherent conversation,   
  
and after that, it took still more work to get him unwound enough   
  
for bed. I guess it was the first time that he'd ever gotten   
  
grabbed like that.   
  
By the time I had Wufei safely tucked in and crept my tired way   
  
back to my room, it was well after midnight and I was pretty damn   
  
tired. I couldn't even go back to my room through the hall; I knew   
  
that there were teachers patrolling, so I had to go back by way of   
  
the window. That ledge might have been a piece of cake in full   
  
light when I was fresh from bed, but it wasn't nearly as much fun   
  
in the dark when I was so tired that I was seeing cross-eyed. Not   
  
to say that it wasn't easy. It just wasn't any fun.  
  
Heero was back. The room was illuminated with the gentle, blue-  
  
tinted glow of the evil machine's screen. The light from the   
  
laptop softened the angles of his face until, for a moment, he   
  
didn't look like a soldier any more. He looked like just another   
  
guy my age, and he was absolutely beautiful. I sat on the window   
  
ledge for a long moment and looked at him. Then I started   
  
shivering. I really didn't think that any view was worth freezing   
  
my ass off out on the ledge, so I opened the window and went   
  
inside.   
  
The laptop screen went abruptly blank and Heero looked up. "You're   
  
back late." he remarked.  
  
I hopped through the window and shut it behind me. Damn, I was   
  
freezing. I grabbed the blanket off of my bed and tried to play it   
  
nonchalant. "Yeah, had to get Wufei tucked in." My shoulder rig   
  
wouldn't settle comfortably under the blanket, so I took it off   
  
and dumped it under my bed.  
  
"Really." Heero shot me an intense, unreadable look.  
  
"It's been an interesting night." Poke, poke, poke. I settled down   
  
on my bed.   
  
Heero glared at me. "It must have been. You smell bad."  
  
"Jerk." I took a cautious sniff. I did, indeed, smell of eau d'   
  
Carmelita's. Ugh. And I was getting the smell all over my nice   
  
clean blanket. Double ugh. "Look at that. You're right for once."   
  
Not exactly the snappiest come back I've ever said, but it was the   
  
best I could think of at the time. I stood and ditched the blanket,   
  
then trundled over to the bathroom. "I'm taking a shower."  
  
"Good."  
  
I sneered at Heero before slamming the bathroom door behind me.   
  
The effect was, of course, lost in the darkness; that was a shame,   
  
because it was one of the best sneers I'd ever done.   
  
centerb* * */b/center  
  
Some days I wondered if it was possible to die from chronic sleep   
  
deprivation. This was one of those days. I'd gotten about three   
  
hours of bad sleep, mostly because I was busy brooding over what   
  
Carmen could have meant by telling me I'd be sorry. If she'd meant   
  
to make me feel paranoid, it certainly had the desired effect.  
  
By the time it hit morning, I was too tired to be high strung.   
  
Normally, getting shorted on sleep wouldn't bother me in the   
  
slightest, but lately I'd been feeling drained. Multiple injuries   
  
did that to a guy. I'd had a hard time finding my way to the   
  
cafeteria, since my eyes were glued shut. When I went through the   
  
breakfast line, I grabbed a tray and piled on as many cups of   
  
coffee as it could hold and stumbled off to my regular table. By   
  
now, the kids in charge of the line knew better than to try to   
  
stop me.  
  
"Morning, Duo!" Quatre sang out. He knew better than to call any   
  
morning 'good' around me. Quatre was, obviously, a morning person.   
  
Sometimes I wondered how the hell we managed to be friends. If he   
  
were anyone else, I would have killed him a long time ago.  
  
I grunted as he set his tray down and took the seat across from me,   
  
still smiling cheerfully. He'd obviously recovered from the   
  
disturbance that our adventure at Carmelita's had caused. Either   
  
that, or he was feeling good because Trowa had made it back in one   
  
piece, again. I was betting on number two.   
  
Quatre started to tear into the plethora of food that was laid out   
  
on his tray. I did my best not to watch. There was something about   
  
eating food in the morning - it was just wrong. Most, days, I was   
  
lucky if I could manage to choke down toast. So I drank my coffee   
  
and did my best to not see Quatre oinking down an entire plateful   
  
of slightly runny, bright yellow school cafeteria scrambled eggs.   
  
If that old saying was true, and you are what you eat, Quatre   
  
would be a full-blown supermarket with extra large tea isle and   
  
dairy section.   
  
After finishing off my second cup of coffee, I felt human enough   
  
to attempt coherent speech. "You're in an unusually good mood this   
  
morning, Quatre." I said. My voice was gravelly in my ears.   
  
He paused mid-bite and smiled brightly at me. The eggs were   
  
quivering in a rather gelatinous fashion on his upraised fork. I   
  
looked away. "Am I?" He asked, a little surprised.  
  
"Yeah." I nodded and took a slurp of my third cup of coffee. Three   
  
sugars and four creams. It was like drinking melted espresso ice   
  
cream. Yum. Wufei wandered into the cafeteria, looking about as   
  
awake as I felt. I waved at him, and he headed over. Unlike Heero   
  
and Trowa, we didn't have early classes, so we normally ate   
  
together. Well, to put it more accurately, Quatre ate and Wufei   
  
and I watched him. Wufei seemed to share my aversion to even the   
  
thought of food in the morning. He usually just had some tea, or   
  
if he was feeling unusually hungry or awake, a little bowl of rice.  
  
It must have been one of those unusual days, because he went   
  
through the food line and got himself a tiny bowl of rice and a   
  
very large mug of tea. He curled a lip eloquently at the plateful   
  
of eggs that Quatre was halfway through demolishing.   
  
Quatre paused again. "Actually, I think you're right. I am in a   
  
good mood."  
  
I almost choked on my coffee. Wufei made a quiet snorting sound   
  
and succeeded in blowing bubbles in his tea.   
  
"Trowa was in our room when we got back." He smiled and started   
  
eating again.  
  
I recovered before Wufei, hope for Quatre suddenly flaring in my   
  
heart. "And?"  
  
He paused. "And what?"  
  
"And what happened?" I felt like crawling over the table and   
  
shaking the answer out of him. I used to I wonder if Quatre really   
  
was as innocent as he acted, or if it was just an act designed to   
  
drive me absolutely bonkers. I figured it out pretty quickly. No   
  
one could be that innocent.  
  
"Oh, he said that he missed me." Quatre grinned.  
  
I almost dropped my coffee cup. Just almost, though. I'd never let   
  
coffee go to waste like that. "That's it?"   
  
"It's an improvement." Quatre pointed out, raising one of his   
  
eyebrows.   
  
"True." I nodded.  
  
Quatre went back to eating his breakfast, I went back to drinking   
  
my coffee. Wufei, who had remained wisely silent throughout the   
  
entire exchange, just shook his head slowly and kept picking at   
  
his rice.   
  
***  
  
It took me five cups of coffee before I was feeling human, and it   
  
was a vague, shaky sort of human at that. I was awake enough to   
  
make myself presentable for class, which was to say that my shirt   
  
was tucked in most of the way and my tie was laying almost flat in   
  
the general area that it was supposed to be in. I hadn't bothered   
  
with the gun, even though I was pretty sure that I could have   
  
hidden the shoulder rig under my uniform jacket without it making   
  
too obvious a lump. I wasn't quite that paranoid yet.  
  
Class was just about ready to start when I got there, though I   
  
wasn't the last one to get in. A girl wandered in after me. She   
  
was wearing a white turtleneck shirt under her regular button   
  
shirt, which I could understand, considering that it was chilly   
  
and some thoughtful soul had left all the classroom's windows open.   
  
I kind of wished that I had a turtleneck myself.  
  
The teacher came in and we'd all just about settled down to an oh-  
  
so-fascinating discussion about differential equations when there   
  
was a polite knock on the door. Lo and behold, one of the school   
  
guidance counselors, a mousy little man that whose name I couldn't   
  
even remember, was standing there when one of the other students   
  
opened the door.  
  
I instantly had a bad feeling. According to my experience, the   
  
guidance counselors tended to keep to themselves. My theory was   
  
that they didn't like reality encroaching in on their little world,   
  
where kids have conflict resolution sessions instead of fights.  
  
Not that I didn't trust counselors or anything.  
  
My worst fears were immediately confirmed when the little mousy   
  
guy said, "We need to see Duo Maxwell, please."  
  
This could only be about one thing. I'd thought that the   
  
counselors had given up yesterday after I bailed out of my room.   
  
I'd underestimated them, my bad. I glanced at the window. The   
  
classroom was on the first story. It would be easy. Unfortunately,   
  
I was seated far enough away from the window that I didn't have a   
  
clear escape route. Damn the calculus teacher and his obsession   
  
with alphabetical seating anyway.  
  
I could make a break for it, probably get caught and hauled off,   
  
or I could willingly go with them into the jaws of hell.   
  
Gee, tough choice there.  
  
I slid out of my seat and skittered toward the window, keeping as   
  
low as possible. As I combat scooted my way past Heero, he gave me   
  
a look that said he thought I was being very stupid in no   
  
uncertain terms. I ignored him. The window went up easily, and I   
  
had one leg over the sill-  
  
"Maxwell get away from the window and come to the front of the   
  
classroom, please."  
  
Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck... 


	10. Part 9

Acherontia Atropos Part 9  
  
I didn't have a lot of choice. I slouched to the front of the   
  
classroom with my hands stuffed firmly in my pockets. The mousy   
  
counselor guy waved me on, and I followed him out of the classroom   
  
and down the hall to the lair of the school administrators. All it   
  
was missing was the skulls and a plaque that read 'Abandon All   
  
Hope, Ye Who Enter Here.'  
  
Next thing, I was seated in front of the rather large and imposing   
  
wood desk of a rather large and imposing woman that was introduced   
  
to me as Ms. Mimura. She had to be at least ten centimeters taller   
  
than me, and her shoulders were twice as broad as mine. Her hair   
  
was iron grey and pulled back so tightly that it gave her a   
  
permanently surprised expression. Still, she didn't really   
  
intimidate me, because she was a little too -- to put it politely   
  
-- rounded to look threatening.   
  
The polite, blank look in her eyes and the too understanding smile   
  
that she seemed to have permanently fixed on her face didn't   
  
really help the look either. I wondered if she'd had to practice   
  
her smile in the mirror in order to get just the right amount of   
  
detached, superior sympathy into it.  
  
The mousy counselor disappeared quickly after the introductions   
  
were complete, leaving me alone with Mimura. She smiled at me. "I   
  
suppose you're wondering why we pulled you out of your class,   
  
Duo."  
  
Actually, I wasn't. But I didn't bother saying anything. I had a   
  
feeling that this was a memorized speech for her, and didn't   
  
really need my input. So I just sat up straight in my chair and   
  
smiled vacuously at her. That's me, Duo Maxwell, the perfect   
  
student. Trust me.  
  
  
  
"We were told that you were one of Yan's close friends, and we   
  
thought that it would be a good idea to have a little talk with   
  
you, just to make sure you're doing alright after such a tragedy.   
  
Unfortunately, you weren't in your room yesterday, so we had to   
  
pull you out of class. This is very important, Duo."  
  
I nodded and kept smiling.   
  
"Grief is a natural part of losing someone. Now, I know that there   
  
is a lot of pressure, especially among men of your age group, to   
  
keep that grief bottled up inside and present a good face to the   
  
world. It's perfectly all right to let it out, though, Duo. That's   
  
what we're here for... blah blah blah... "  
  
For a moment, I considered dredging up some fake tears, because   
  
maybe she'd let me go sooner. I didn't feel up to it, and who knew,   
  
she might try to hug me or something. I was too angry to deal with   
  
that. So I settled for neutrality. "I understand, Ms. Mimura."  
  
It wasn't the response she'd been looking for, apparently. Her   
  
smile stiffened a little. "One of the other students saw you climb   
  
out of your window yesterday, Duo. Were you running away from us?"  
  
Shit. If I could find who'd squealed on me, I'd give them a piece   
  
of my mind. A LARGE piece. Since my little escape out the window   
  
couldn't possibly be interpreted as anything else, I decided to be   
  
honest. "Yes I was."  
  
"Why?"  
  
"I don't feel like talking."   
  
"Now, Duo." Mimura grabbed a pencil off of her desk and absently   
  
began rolling it between her pudgy fingers. "It's not healthy to   
  
keep your feelings bottled up inside. You need to let them out...   
  
blah blah blah... "  
  
I had to disagree with her there. Killing someone and ending up in   
  
jail didn't sound real healthy to me.  
  
"Why are you so afraid to admit that you feel pain and loss over   
  
the death of your friend?"  
  
True, I was upset about Yan dying. Upset enough to commit felony   
  
arson and use a lot of bullets, at least. But in my experience,   
  
death happened all the time and there wasn't a lot to be done   
  
about it. I was planning to take care of the rest of the things   
  
that had killed him soon, so no problem. I couldn't very well tell   
  
a psychiatrist that, though. Not if I wanted to stay out of the   
  
loony bin. Besides, I've said it before, and I'll say it again. I   
  
can't stand it when someone acts like they know everything. "I'm   
  
not afraid to admit that I'm upset. I just don't feel like talking   
  
about it."  
  
"Now, Duo... "  
  
I sighed. "Why do you find it so hard to believe that I'm okay? I   
  
am, you know." I stood up. They couldn't really do anything to   
  
stop me from leaving, and I didn't feel up to putting up with this   
  
shit.  
  
Mimura's lips compressed, and she looked at me piercingly for a   
  
moment. "Fine, Duo. You know where to find us if you change your   
  
mind. Don't be afraid to express yourself... blah blah blah... "  
  
"I am expressing myself." I don't know why I bothered to argue.   
  
Masochism, probably.  
  
"I don't understand how you can hide your true feelings like   
  
this."  
  
I pulled the door open. That was it. "I am not hiding my true   
  
feelings. Death happens, Ms. Mimura. It sucks, but there's no   
  
point in useless chest beating because it won't bring anyone back.   
  
Besides," I added, without really thinking it through, "I've got   
  
it taken care of. This will all be over real soon." I hoped.  
  
I heard a sound behind me. Mimura had dropped her pencil.  
  
Quickly, I ran over the last bit I'd said and tried to think about   
  
it impartially.  
  
Oh shit... had I really said that? I let out a very soft,   
  
exasperated sigh, and resisted the temptation to bonk my head   
  
against the wall. "Christ on a crutch... " I muttered softly. Me   
  
and my big mouth.  
  
"Duo, I think you'd better sit down. It seems that we still have   
  
some issues to work out."  
  
I knew that I couldn't escape now. So I closed the door and sat,   
  
hoping compliance would get me somewhere. Fat chance. Mimura fixed   
  
me with a look that was about on the level of Heero's death glares,   
  
as far as intensity went. "Duo, you are a very bright young man.   
  
You have a lot of friends, you're doing very well in your   
  
classes... blah blah blah... "  
  
I wondered since when did sliding through count as doing very well.   
  
I had a feeling that good ol' Mimura hadn't done her homework.  
  
"... and you're extremely popular with the girls in your age group.   
  
I'm sure you have several dying to go out with you... blah blah   
  
blah... "  
  
Well... she was probably right on that one. I idly wondered what   
  
Mimura would do if I told her I wasn't interested in going out   
  
with girls. Now, my roommate... I quickly discarded that idea. It   
  
would certainly change the topic of the conversation, but I had a   
  
feeling that it would have been out of the frying pan and into the   
  
fire. I really didn't need a lecture from some quack on proper   
  
sexual roles.  
  
"You have so much to lose. There is no need to be self-  
  
destructive... yaddah yaddah yaddah... "  
  
If only she knew she was saying that to a Gundam Pilot. I had to   
  
fight off the urge to laugh. Somehow, I had a feeling that she   
  
would take it the wrong way. So I plastered my most disarming grin   
  
on my face. "I don't suppose you would believe me if I said that   
  
you completely misunderstood what I said and I have absolutely no   
  
intention of being self destructive."   
  
She eyed me disbelievingly. "Denial is an ugly thing, Duo."  
  
So much for honesty. I had a feeling that this was going to take a   
  
while.  
  
***  
  
It was after dinner before I managed to extricate myself from   
  
Mimura's office. My poor hand was cramping up so horribly that I   
  
was afraid I'd never be able to straighten my fingers. That   
  
stupid... PSYCHO had made me write a twenty-page essay on how I   
  
had so much to live for and would promise not to kill myself no   
  
matter what. Basically, she stood over my shoulder and dictated to   
  
me, then hovered until I signed it.   
  
ARGH!  
  
Heero was sitting at the desk, working on the laptop as always   
  
when I flung the door open. "You're back late."   
  
I glared at him. He actually blanched. I cradled my screaming hand   
  
against my chest and slammed the door as hard as I could. The   
  
window rattled.  
  
Heero recovered quickly from my glare and raised an eyebrow.   
  
"Don't even THINK about asking." I snarled before stalking to the   
  
bathroom with the intention of soaking my hand in warm water. I   
  
slammed the bathroom door, too. It felt really good. So I opened   
  
the door back up and slammed it again. I glared at my own   
  
reflection in the bathroom mirror for a moment. I was actually   
  
panting with rage, like I'd just gotten done with a marathon. I   
  
had the gleam in my eye that I've only seen before in pictures of   
  
me when I'm fresh out of Deathscythe's cockpit.   
  
With a great deal of deliberation, I opened the bathroom door, and   
  
then slammed it again. Harder. The doorframe cracked loudly, and I   
  
grinned, imagining that Mimura's face had been there.  
  
INo, Ms. Mimura, I am not feeling even remotely suicidal.  
  
Homicidal, though, that's a different matter entirely... /I  
  
As I slammed the bathroom door for the fifth time, a long, thin   
  
splinter of wood broke off the frame and hit the floor with a soft   
  
click. I grabbed the doorknob with my good hand and pulled the   
  
door open again. God, it felt good. When in doubt, take it out on   
  
an inanimate object. They can't take you to court.  
  
I think Heero picked up on how upset I was quickly, probably   
  
because it couldn't have been more obvious if I was wearing a neon   
  
sign that broadcasted my mood. Before I could slam the door again,   
  
which would probably have knocked it off its hinges, he had one   
  
hand against the other side of it. I tried to pull the door open   
  
wider to knock him off balance or make him back off, and he   
  
grabbed the knob as well.  
  
Even at my most pissed off, I couldn't match for Heero's strength.   
  
I pulled ineffectually at the door for a moment before I gave up   
  
and just snarled at him.   
  
He didn't budge. "Want to talk?" he asked simply.  
  
It was such an un-Heero-like thing for him to say that it shocked   
  
me out of being pissed for a moment. Normally, he left me alone if   
  
I was that upset. Hooray for social mal-adjustment. Like I was a   
  
fucking poster child myself.  
  
I was having too much of a bad day to be happy that Heero was   
  
actually showing signs of concern for me. Uncharitably, I thought   
  
he was probably just asking because he didn't want to have to   
  
repair the bathroom door. "Not really." I growled, clenching my   
  
right hand into a fist and trying to shake some feeling into my   
  
left hand.  
  
"Do it anyway." Heero pushed the bathroom door the rest of the way   
  
open and glared at me. "What's wrong with your hand?"  
  
"Severe muscle cramps and spasming because that stupid bitch made   
  
me write so much." I muttered. "I oughta report her to the   
  
authorities for child abuse." Really, my hand wasn't the only   
  
thing that was having muscle problems. My back and neck were   
  
screaming with tension from the stress of spending a day with the   
  
MIS-guidance counselor from hell. The mere thought of my afternoon   
  
made my anger boil up again, and I made a grab for the door.   
  
Slamming it in Heero's face would've felt good. It wouldn't have   
  
been a smart idea, but at that point, I didn't care.  
  
Thankfully, Heero grabbed my wrist firmly and prevented me from   
  
royally screwing myself over. I tried to jerk out of his grasp   
  
until it was obvious that he wasn't going to let go.   
  
The entire day came crashing down on me. Until then, I'd been   
  
running on the remnants of my morning caffeine and pure anger.   
  
When it became clear that Heero not only wasn't letting go, but   
  
also that he was serious about wanting me to talk, all of my anger   
  
just drained away and left me with nothing. I became very aware of   
  
the fact that I was dead tired, emotionally drained, and the   
  
hungriest that I've been since I got off the streets. I wavered on   
  
my feet and let myself slump.  
  
Heero let my wrist go and grabbed my shoulder instead, propelling   
  
me out of the bathroom. "Sit." He ordered, giving me a gentle   
  
shove toward me bed. I didn't so much sit as my legs gave out. My   
  
hands shook.  
  
Heero handed me a sandwich and a little bottle of tea. I almost   
  
inhaled the food. The tea was extremely, almost sickeningly sweet,   
  
but I gulped it down anyway and felt better, good enough for a   
  
little of my normal humor to return. I pulled the corners of my   
  
lips up in the tired semblance of a smile. "Thanks."  
  
Heero shrugged and sat down on his own bed. "Trowa stole that from   
  
the cafeteria for you. He said you'd be tired and upset when you   
  
got back."   
  
Trowa? I chewed on that thought for a moment while I finished the   
  
bottle of awful tea. I couldn't really imagine him doing something   
  
like that, but then again, I'll be the first to admit that I don't   
  
know Trowa at all.  
  
Heero waited until I was done before he spoke again. "Talk now."   
  
I heaved a sigh and threw myself back on my bed. My braid slid   
  
over the edge as I glared at the ceiling, anger stirring again now   
  
that I had the energy for it. "You know what happened."  
  
"If I did, I wouldn't ask." He pointed out.  
  
"The guidance counselors decided to have a little chat session   
  
with me."  
  
"And... ?"  
  
"And what."   
  
"Something obviously happened, or they would have let you out   
  
before now."   
  
I sighed, and muttered something incoherent. I could feel him   
  
glaring at me, so I gave up and told him. Heero can be a   
  
persistent little cuss. "I opened my big mouth and now they think   
  
I'm suicidal. So I had to sit there and get preached at, then   
  
write a twenty page paper on how I wanted to live." I snarled.  
  
Heero snorted, and I turned my head to the side so I could see him.   
  
He was smirking. "What the hell's so funny?" I demanded.  
  
"Out of all of us, they told you not to be suicidal."   
  
I had to admit, I saw the humor in it. Sure, I've tried to self-  
  
destruct my fair share of times, but out of all of us, I was the   
  
least suicidal. Well... except for Quatre and maybe Wufei. Wufei   
  
hadn't tried to blow up Shenlon before, but then again, he was the   
  
one that kept telling people they could go ahead and kill him.   
  
Death before dishonor and that other Klingon-type bullshit, I   
  
guessed. "Yeah, I guess that is kind of dumb, huh?" I laughed. It   
  
felt good after being so angry. My laugh got cut off, though, when   
  
one of the muscles in my left hand started to spasm. "Jesus, that   
  
fucking hurts!" I whined, and tried to shake my hand out.   
  
Heero got off of his bed and grabbed my flailing hand. He found   
  
the muscle that was giving me so much trouble and pressed down on   
  
it until it stopped jumping. It hurt like hell, but I knew it was   
  
necessary to get my hand to stop spasming. That didn't stop me   
  
from balling up my right hand into a fist and hitting Heero's arm   
  
as hard as I could, though. I've never been one to deal   
  
gracefully with pain.   
  
Heero just grunted and didn't let go until my hand was finished   
  
trying to cramp up. "The rest of you that tense?"  
  
I made a face to hide my growing confusion. "Not quite."  
  
Heero disappeared for a minute into the bathroom and came back   
  
with a funny orange pill and a little cup of water. He handed them   
  
to me, and I eyed the pill distrustfully.  
  
"Muscle relaxant." He said. "You might as well get some sleep, too.   
  
You didn't last night."  
  
I glanced up quickly, a little surprised.  
  
"I could hear you while I was resting." That seemed to close the   
  
subject off, because Heero went back over to the desk and turned   
  
the laptop on.  
  
I shrugged and took the pill. Just when I was beginning to think   
  
that Heero didn't feel anything at all, he went and did something   
  
like this. My roommate, the walking enigma.  
  
***  
  
The next day started out a lot more brightly. I actually got some   
  
sleep, for one. And it was Friday. I was feeling so good that I   
  
managed to choke down a couple pieces of dry toast along with my   
  
morning round of coffee at breakfast. Quatre was in a good mood,   
  
as always, and Wufei was... Wufei. Neither of them asked me about   
  
what happened, even though everyone in my dorm must have known   
  
that something was up, considering I hadn't tried to be the least   
  
bit circumspect in expressing my displeasure. Thank Heaven for   
  
small favors.  
  
Breakfast came and went without anything interesting happening.   
  
I'd forgotten my calculus book back in my room, though. By the   
  
time I was speeding toward class, the bell had already rung. The   
  
halls were empty.  
  
So it was a bit of a shock when a girl came up one of the halls   
  
perpendicular to mine and popped up right in front of me. I plowed   
  
into her, knocking both of us to the floor. I spun out on the   
  
slick tiles before I managed to scramble to my feet, apologies   
  
falling rapidly from my lips. Papers were scattered all over the   
  
hall -- all my old, half-finished homework assignments had fallen   
  
out from between the pages of my textbook.  
  
The girl was still on the floor, so I scrambled over to her and   
  
offered a hand up. She stood slowly, ignoring my hand, a dazed   
  
expression on her face. It was the girl in the turtleneck from   
  
yesterday. She was still wearing it.   
  
"Oh man, I'm sorry. Are you okay?" I bowed a couple of times for   
  
good measure.   
  
She looked at me for a long moment like she didn't quite see me.   
  
Her face was pale and she had dark circles around her eyes like   
  
she hadn't been sleeping. "Oh, it's alright." Her words were   
  
slightly slurred.  
  
I wondered if I'd run into her a little harder than I'd thought.   
  
"I'm really sorry, I didn't see you coming. Are you sure you're   
  
ok?"  
  
"Yes, thank you." she replied tiredly. "I wasn't looking where I   
  
was going. It's my fault entirely. Excuse me." Without another   
  
word, she turned and walked slowly away.   
  
I grabbed my book and most of my papers off of the floor before I   
  
followed her. We were going to the same class, after all. When I   
  
caught up, she didn't even look at me. "So... how about the   
  
weather. Nice day out, isn't it?" I asked lamely.  
  
"Yes." Was all she said.  
  
"So... ah... what do you think of class?"   
  
She didn't even bother to reply to that. I gave up and we finished   
  
the walk to class in disturbing silence. I had a hard time   
  
concentrating as the teacher started up about differentials again.   
  
There was just something about the girl that was really bothering   
  
me. When I looked into her eyes, I didn't see anything, just a   
  
terrible kind of blankness. The lights were on, but nobody was   
  
home.  
  
***  
  
Class let out after what felt like a hundred years. The girl got   
  
up and left in a hurry, even though I called to her. "Hey! Wait   
  
up!" I tried to follow her through the hall, but she lost me   
  
quickly in the crowd and left me trying to push my way up against   
  
a steady stream of other teenagers, all of whom seemed to be   
  
intent on blocking my way.  
  
Someone rammed their shoulder into my chest, knocking my breath   
  
out. I stumbled back and ran into another kid. I looked up as the   
  
person that had run into me went past, expecting them to at least   
  
apologize or something. He just looked at me as he walked by, his   
  
eyes never leaving my   
  
face. I froze at the look in his eyes, ignoring the crowd that was   
  
shoving me and pressing in on all sides. The collar on the jacket   
  
of his school uniform was buttoned all the way up to his chin.   
  
I let the crowd flow around me and suppressed a shiver.   
  
By the end of the day, I was starting to truly get scared.   
  
Everywhere I went, there were other students bumping into me,   
  
watching me, shoving me. I shouldn't have cared, since plenty of   
  
that went on in the halls every day. But this was different.   
  
Every single one of them had a mirrored glass wall right behind   
  
their eyes.   
  
I was more than ready to escape back to the safety of my room when   
  
the last class of the day let out. The halls were even more   
  
crowded than normal. Someone shoved me from behind, hard, and I   
  
stumbled forward and had to catch myself against another student.   
  
He stopped, right in the middle of the hall and turned to look at   
  
me. I immediately jerked away, mumbling incoherent apologies as he   
  
continued to stare. Behind the blankness of his eyes, I could see   
  
a kind of muted malevolence that was too disturbing for words.  
  
Someone grabbed my arm and I jerked around to find myself face to   
  
face with a pretty blonde girl, whose name, I thought, was Mika.   
  
She smiled at me, and I smiled back for a moment, but then I could   
  
feel my expression slipping, fading. She was looking right through   
  
me. "What's wrong, Duo?" Mika asked softly, then let go of my arm.  
  
A touch on my shoulder, and I was spun around to face one of the   
  
guys from my gym class, Shigeru. He was so tall that I barely came   
  
up to his chin. He looked down at me and smiled. "You look a   
  
little disconcerted." he said.   
  
I took a step back. Shigeru didn't talk like that.  
  
I was yanked around to face another boy, a nerdy guy with glasses   
  
that I recognized from chemistry. He always kept to himself and   
  
didn't normally speak unless spoken to first. "Is something   
  
bothering you?"  
  
I wrenched my arm out of his grasp and backed away until I ran   
  
into someone that was standing behind me. I yelped and turned to   
  
find myself face to face with Kaori, the junior class president.   
  
"Sorry, I didn't see you there." I said. Kaori was a nice girl,   
  
but she tended to get a little   
  
touchy if people weren't polite to her. I guess her position was   
  
going to her head or something.   
  
Kaori just smiled at me, not saying anything. She was wearing a   
  
white turtleneck under her normal shirt. When she spoke, her voice   
  
was soft, and the inflections were very un-Kaori-like. "Are you   
  
going somewhere, Duo?"  
  
Without really knowing why, I reached a shaking hand out and   
  
tugged the neck of her shirt down, revealing part of her pale,   
  
smooth neck. Her skin was so delicate that I could see the thin   
  
blue lines of her veins just under the surface. Marring the soft   
  
perfection of her skin was a dark bruise.  
  
In the middle of it sat two small, neat puncture wounds.  
  
I yanked my hand away and took an involuntary step back, my breath   
  
catching in my throat. I could feel my eyes widening, my stomach   
  
clenching, my body getting ready to run like hell if the need   
  
arose.   
  
Kaori didn't bother pulling her shirt back up. She just kept   
  
smiling. Soft footsteps came up behind me, and a heavy hand fell   
  
on my shoulder. I bit back a startled yelp as a wash of cool   
  
electricity flowed through me. Lips touched my ear, and a guy   
  
whispered. "You seem real tense, Duo."  
  
I jerked out from under the hand and took several quick steps away,   
  
resisting the urge to rub my arms. I was suddenly very, very cold.   
  
I looked at the little group in front of me with wide eyes. There   
  
were four of them... wait... now five of my fellow students   
  
standing there, watching me. I looked into their eyes and saw   
  
Yan's face, right before he'd kneed me one. Kaori slowly licked   
  
one of her fingers and then touched the mark on her neck, a little   
  
smirk on her face.   
  
They weren't human, not right now. I ran for the dubious safety of   
  
my room. I'd thought I was safe at school, because my fellow   
  
students were normal, more normal than me. They couldn't hurt me,   
  
they could be my buffer between myself and what I did every day.   
  
That buffer was gone, and my friends were now enemies.  
  
There was no way I could strike back at them, because they were   
  
still in there, somewhere. I was powerless. Again.  
  
I ran as fast as I could, even though I couldn't hear anyone   
  
behind me. It was only a short distance to the dorm's entrance.   
  
Right before I reached the double doors, though, I ran into   
  
someone for the second time that day. We went down in a tangle of   
  
arms and legs and slid across the polished tile floor. I ended up   
  
sprawled on top of the person -- girl, actually, the fact that she   
  
had breasts made that pretty obvious. I pushed myself up so that I   
  
wasn't laying on her, apologizing profusely.  
  
She grabbed the collar of my uniform as I tried to get up, and her   
  
other hand brushed along the inside of my thigh. She was the girl   
  
from my calculus class, the one that I'd run into earlier.   
  
"Don't you want to play with us, Duo?" Her hand cupped my groin.  
  
I threw myself away from her with a startled gasp, tearing my   
  
shirt out of her hands. A button snapped off of my collar and went   
  
bouncing across the floor. I couldn't get through the dorm doors;   
  
she was blocking them. I shot a glance down the hallway, back into   
  
the school. The other students were walking toward us, their pace   
  
very deliberate. There was nowhere for me to run.  
  
The girl rolled to her stomach and stretched languidly, sticking   
  
her bottom in the air like a cat before she started crawling   
  
toward me. It would have looked pretty damn ridiculous if she   
  
hadn't been staring through me like I was made of glass. I scooted   
  
across the floor, away from her until my back met the wall with a   
  
solid thud. She giggled.   
  
Vampires, I could handle. But not this. Oh God, not this.   
  
They were all around me now, pressing me in against the wall. I   
  
suppressed the urge to whimper as a sudden surge of claustrophobia   
  
hit me. Trapped with no escape or recourse: this was the stuff of   
  
nightmares.  
  
Kaori reached forward and caressed my cheek with the tips of her   
  
fingers. The cold, electric power that I now knew was the master   
  
of the vampires jolted through me, and I did whimper, half from   
  
pain, and half from the fact that there was something about it   
  
that felt really good. Something that called to me. Mika moved in   
  
close until our bodies were pressed completely against each other.   
  
"Why are you running away?" She slowly rolled her hips against   
  
mine.  
  
My stomach clenched and a tiny moan slid from between my lips. I   
  
wasn't sure whether to laugh or cry. There were guys that would   
  
pay good money to have something like this happen to them but I   
  
sure as hell wasn't one of them. I was shoving myself back into   
  
the wall so hard that it was a wonder I didn't melt through it. I   
  
didn't know what to do, but my goddamn body seemed to. There was a   
  
definite warmth starting up in my groin.  
  
"No... please don't... " I whispered hoarsely.  
  
Shigeru leaned in close and rubbed one of his hands slowly across   
  
my chest. "You can't escape us."  
  
The girl from my calculus class was pressing in on my other side,   
  
trapping me completely. "You owe us the blood price now,   
  
murderer?" Her hand slid under my waistband, warm fingers wrapping   
  
around my penis.   
  
I started hyperventilating and shut my eyes, trying to concentrate,   
  
trying to ignore what was happening around me. For the first time   
  
in years, my fear had escaped, becoming a living, malevolent thing   
  
as the walls closed in. The girl's fingers tightened, and a wave   
  
of sick pleasure ran up my spine. This couldn't be happening.  
  
Someone was whispering "No no no no no no no... " continuously in   
  
a high, thin voice. It took me a moment to realize that the voice   
  
was mine.   
  
"We're always watching you." Kaori was so close to me that her   
  
breath puffed against my lips as she whispered.  
  
The hand in my pants slid up the length of my member, then back   
  
down, and my knees almost gave out. I couldn't breathe. Oh God, I   
  
couldn't breathe. Oh God... oh God... oh God...   
  
"Duo! Are you ok?"   
  
Suddenly, I was free. All the pressure of the other student's   
  
bodies against me was abruptly gone. My eyes snapped open. I could   
  
feel how wide they were; the whites of my eyes were showing, I   
  
knew it. Slowly, I slid down the wall, hyperventilating, my hands   
  
clutched to my chest.  
  
I could dimly hear Mika say, very brightly "Duo wasn't feeling   
  
very good, Quatre. We were just helping him back to his room."  
  
"Thank you." Quatre said. There was a strange note in his voice,   
  
one that didn't belong there. It was hot with anger. "We'll help   
  
him now."  
  
I saw the other students walk past me, back into the school. The   
  
all stared at me as they went by.  
  
"Duo!" Rough hands grabbed my shoulders.  
  
"NO!" I screamed, clawing at the hands on my shoulders. "No! No!   
  
Don't! Don't touch me! NO!" I kept screaming and tried to push   
  
them away, tried to cover my face and hide so they couldn't hurt   
  
me.   
  
"Duo, it's me!" I was shaken roughly, and I found myself looking   
  
into intense blue eyes. Heero's eyes. "What happened?" He demanded.  
  
I could only shake my head. I was breathing too fast, and the   
  
world was starting to tilt at a crazy angle. I could still feel   
  
them watching me, touching me. I tried to push Heero's hands off   
  
of my shoulders, letting out a choked sound that might have been a   
  
sob on a happier day. The other guys were dim behind him; my   
  
vision was starting to black out around the edges. The panic   
  
refused to release me. It had already coiled itself around me and   
  
was squeezing until I couldn't breathe.   
  
I was so afraid.   
  
I was terrified.  
  
Blurrily, I thought I saw Trowa grimace, his eyes narrowing. He   
  
brought up on hand to clutch the side of his face... and suddenly,   
  
Heero was shoved out of the way and one of Trowa's thin, delicate   
  
hands was rushing toward me. It cracked solidly across my   
  
cheekbone, and I lost my balance and half fell, tasting blood in   
  
my mouth.  
  
I heard Quatre yell "Trowa!" and Heero turned and shoved him away,   
  
his face twisted into the first truly angry expression I've ever   
  
seen on him.  
  
I touched my cheek gingerly. It hurt, a lot, but the pain was mine.   
  
It was all mine. It was clean. I held it to me and focused on it   
  
until my breathing slowed. Heero turned back toward me and tried   
  
to help me stand up. I jerked away from him and stumbled to my   
  
feet, running down the hall to my dorm room. I scrabbled at the   
  
doorknob until I was able to force the door open. I think I must   
  
have broken the lock. I didn't care. I had to get away. I had to   
  
hide.  
  
I ran into the bathroom and slammed the door behind me, locking it.   
  
I half struggled out of my uniform, popping more buttons off of it   
  
and ripping one of the seams open, then gave it up as a lost cause   
  
and stumbled into the shower, turning the cold water up full blast.   
  
It hit me like wall, leaving me drenched, shivering, and gasping   
  
for breath through my chattering teeth. But it was real.  
  
I slid down the shower wall until I was under the freezing spray,   
  
curling into a tiny, shivering ball. It was real. Oh god, it was   
  
real.  
  
The last normal thing in my life was gone. I didn't have anything   
  
left that wasn't tainted.  
  
"I can't do this." I whispered softly to the empty air before I   
  
put my face in my hands and cried. 


	11. Part 10

Acherontia Atropos Part 10  
  
It's impossible to understand what I was thinking at that time.   
  
The only reason I can remember anything is because while my main   
  
self was cowering in the shower and whimpering like a lost three-  
  
year-old, there was a tiny part of myself that was merely watching,   
  
not caring about what was happening in the slightest. I've always   
  
found that part of myself disturbing; it's the part of me that   
  
lets me kill people and be able to sleep afterwards, or blow up   
  
buildings and not think about how many people died. It was white,   
  
neutral blankness that was the essence of nothing.  
  
I didn't want to know what had happened to me. I wanted to erase   
  
the last fifteen minutes of my life. My friends - no, I guess they   
  
weren't my friends any more - had touched me, in ways that I never   
  
wanted anyone to touch me.   
  
And I had enjoyed it. God forgive me, on some deep, primal level,   
  
I had been aroused by it.  
  
I was dirty, and it wasn't dirt that the shower could wash away. I   
  
wanted to hide where no one would ever see me, so that no one   
  
would be able to see how dirty I was. I wanted to scrape the filth   
  
off with my fingernails, only I couldn't seem to make my hands   
  
unclench.  
  
I don't know how long I sat beneath the freezing spray. It could   
  
have been a minute, it could have been an hour, a day, a year. At   
  
first, the cold water made my skin sting, given me pain that I   
  
could cling to - it wasn't tainted by the touch of monsters. All   
  
too soon everything went numb, and all I could do was shiver. I   
  
shook so hard that I was having a tough time breathing; every now   
  
and then my body jerked and I hit the back of my head against the   
  
shower wall. My uniform was clinging to my body like a second skin   
  
of ice. The cold reached down through my soul until I was afraid   
  
that I would never be able to be warm again.  
  
The monsters under the bed were real, and they could look just   
  
like my classmates.  
  
I couldn't do this.  
  
The first thing I heard, other than the hiss of water, was someone   
  
knocking on the bathroom door. By that time, I was too cold to   
  
move, too cold to think. Too cold to care.  
  
Whoever it was knocked again, louder. "Duo?" Quatre's voice was   
  
muffled by the wood of the door. "Are you okay?"  
  
Any other time, I would have laughed at the question, because it   
  
was just too stupid. I wasn't sure if I was ever going to be okay   
  
again.  
  
I guess my lack of response worried Quatre, because he knocked   
  
again, even more loudly. "Duo, can you hear me?" The knob rattled.   
  
"Please open the door." Even if I'd felt like it, I don't think I   
  
could have gotten up. I couldn't feel any more, which was almost   
  
comforting. The knob rattled again, and the door creaked as Quatre   
  
pushed against it experimentally. "Duo!" Quatre yelled. "Say   
  
something!" Idly, I wondered why he sounded so upset. Maybe he   
  
thought I was trying to kill myself again. I'd promised Wufei that   
  
I wouldn't ever try again, no matter what. Quatre didn't have to   
  
be worried.   
  
I just needed to get away for a little while. That was all.  
  
Something was happening beyond the bathroom door. Quatre yelled,   
  
though I couldn't make out the words. After a moment, he fell   
  
silent, and then someone pounded on the door. It was Heero. "Duo,   
  
open the door." He sounded very angry, but there was something in   
  
his voice that I couldn't really understand. In anyone else, I   
  
would have said it was fear. But Heero Yuy didn't feel fear.  
  
I tried to answer; no matter how upset I was, I didn't mean to   
  
spread it around. And Heero sounded more than upset. Nothing would   
  
come out of my mouth except soft gulping sounds. There was another   
  
pause, another excited discussion, and then something slammed into   
  
the door once, then again, harder. With a tortured crack, the lock   
  
broke and the door was flung inwards, slamming solidly into the   
  
wall and staying there. I wanted to wince; that would be a bitch   
  
to fix.  
  
Heero was through the doorway before the door had even hit the   
  
wall. He ran right into the edge of the sink and grunted. Typical   
  
Heero. Use a thermo-nuclear device to kill ants. He turned and   
  
fixed me with the most intense, angry glare I'd ever seen from him.   
  
I wanted to cower away, to apologize. His gaze flicked down for a   
  
moment, checking the water for any traces of blood. Maybe Quatre   
  
really did think that I would try to slit my wrists again.  
  
"Duo?" Heero said. He moved forward, and Quatre squeezed into the   
  
bathroom after him.   
  
I lifted my head and tried to look at Heero. My hair was soaked,   
  
and it hung in front of my eyes in a ragged, dripping curtain. I   
  
couldn't stop shaking.  
  
His eyes never leaving my face, Heero reached over me and turned   
  
the shower off with a viscious jerk of his wrist. The caulking   
  
around the handle cracked.   
  
"Duo, are you alright?" Quatre asked.  
  
I couldn't answer.  
  
Heero didn't know quite what to do. For a long moment, he just   
  
looked at me, like he would swallow me with his eyes. A hard chill   
  
hit me, and my entire body convulsed, jerking my head back to   
  
crack against the wall again. Until now, I hadn't really felt the   
  
cold; I had just felt numb. Now the air hit me like a solid wall.   
  
Heero roughly hauled me out of the shower, holding me tightly.   
  
Quatre got out of his way and he carried me out into the room. I   
  
tried to giggle; he seemed to be doing that an awful lot, lately.   
  
It was starting to get ridiculous. All I could do was let out a   
  
soft puff of air, though.  
  
"Idiot." Heero growled. "He had the cold water on all the way."  
  
Quatre came up beside him, his face pale and pinched with worry.   
  
Without preamble, Heero dumped me on his bed and started to   
  
unbutton my shirt. He had a difficult time with it; the material   
  
of the shirt was soaked and didn't want to give. Quatre pulled off   
  
my shoes and pants.   
  
With a growl, Heero gave up and simply popped the buttons, sitting   
  
me up so he could pull the ruined shirt off of me. Quatre snagged   
  
my underwear - score one pair of ruined boxers. They picked me up   
  
and quickly moved me over to my bed. Their hands felt like fire   
  
against my skin. Heero muttered a really foul word and yanked my   
  
blanket up over me. He pulled the extra blankets from under my bed   
  
and piled those on top of me as well. They weren't doing much good.  
  
Heero said another extremely foul word. My vision was starting to   
  
dim, so I simply shut my eyes, and I felt the last few threads of   
  
reality slipping hrough my fingers. I think the thing that   
  
frightened me the most later was that I really didn't care. I just   
  
wanted to escape.  
  
I heard Quatre say, "He's not going to be able to warm up on his   
  
own."  
  
The pressure of the blankets lifted from me for a moment, and two   
  
warm bodies slid into the bed, one on either side of me.   
  
Suddenly, all the fear that I thought I had escaped from surged   
  
back up. I heard Kaori whispering "We're always watching you..."   
  
The tiny bit of uncaring peace that I had been clinging to was   
  
torn away. Oh God...I couldn't breathe...  
  
/No! Don't touch me!/  
  
/No!/  
  
I let out a strangled sob and tried to curl up into a little ball,   
  
covering my face with my hands. Warm, strong arms wrapped around   
  
me and pulled me tightly against someone's bare chest.   
  
"It's okay, Duo." Quatre whispered. "It's just me and Heero. It's   
  
okay. We're just trying to warm you up. It's okay. You're safe now.   
  
It's okay..." He repeated the same soft words, over and over in a   
  
calming litany. Heero and Quatre were my friends. No, more than   
  
friends. More than family. They wouldn't hurt me. I buried my face   
  
against Quatre's hot shoulder and started to cry like I would   
  
never stop.  
  
Two warm, calloused hands touched my back. I forced myself to   
  
relax; it was Heero. He wouldn't let anyone hurt me. After a   
  
moment, the hands slid around my waist and Heero was pressed up   
  
against my back.  
  
Neither he nor Quatre were wearing more than their underwear, and   
  
I wasn't wearing anything at all, but for that moment it didn't   
  
bother me one bit. This was clean. It was comfort.  
  
Both of them were like steady flames on either side of me.   
  
Quatre's heartbeat softly echoed in my ears. I drank of their   
  
warmth until I couldn't hold any more, until I stopped shaking. I   
  
fed their warmth into the profound chill that the vampires had put   
  
into me and it slowly receded until it was nothing more than a   
  
dull ache, though it wouldn't disappear entirely.   
  
I don't know how long the two of them held me like that. I   
  
sniffled loudly, sounding for all the world like a little kid.   
  
Quatre's arms tightened around me for a moment and I glanced up.   
  
He looked very tired. "Are you going to be okay now?"  
  
I tried to laugh, and ended up choking. My voice was thick with   
  
phlegm, my nose felt like it was going to explode, and my throat   
  
was very, very sore. "I don't know." I said honestly. Some people   
  
can cry without feeling like shit when they're done. That's   
  
definitely not one of my talents. Thankfully, I could count the   
  
number of times I'd cried on one hand - being a guy had its   
  
benefits.  
  
"What happened?" Quatre asked.   
  
I clenched my hands until my fingernails bit into my palms.   
  
"Vampires," I said. My voice didn't shake. Go me. Not that I   
  
really had to put up any pretense of strength now, considering   
  
that Quatre's shoulder was slick with my tears. It made me feel   
  
better, though. "They were controlling Kaori and Mika and everyone.   
  
I couldn't defend myself."   
  
"Shit," Quatre said.  
  
I managed a watery chuckle at that. I didn't get to hear Quatre   
  
cuss too often.  
  
Heero's voice was soft and dangerous. "What did they do?"  
  
"Please don't ask." I shook my head. "Please don't make me think   
  
about it." I wondered if I sounded as pathetic to them as I did in   
  
my own ears.   
  
Heero's arms tightened around my waist. "It's alright," he said.  
  
I shook my head. "It's not okay." Despite my best efforts, tears   
  
started stinging at my eyes again. "Goddamnit!" I scrubbed at my   
  
eyes with a hand.  
  
There was a soft knock on the door, after which it was immediately   
  
opened. The person who had just come in let out a surprised cough.   
  
I snorted thickly. That could only be one person   
  
"Come in and shut the door, Wufei," Quatre said. I heard the door   
  
shut, so I guess Wufei did as he was told for once. "Duo was   
  
trying to freeze to death," Quatre continued, "we had to warm him   
  
up."  
  
I snorted again - or let's be honest - giggled at how perverted   
  
that sounded. Oh God, this wasn't good. The way I was going,   
  
pretty soon I'd start to laugh, and then I wouldn't be able to   
  
stop, and then Mimura would show up with a strait jacket and a   
  
hand cart to haul me away to the happy place where people   
  
fingerpainted on the walls all day.  
  
Wufei walked softly to the bed. I rolled my eyes up so I could see   
  
him. "You look like hell, Duo," he observed. "And you're being   
  
quiet." He was taut with anger, but I knew that it wasn't directed   
  
at me. He sat down on the edge of the bed by my head, and for a   
  
brief moment, he reached out and brushed my half dry hair back   
  
with one hand.  
  
I was a surprised a little--well, a lot. Best friend Wufei may   
  
have been, but touchy-feely he wasn't. Just this once, it seemed   
  
right. He radiated the same sort of warmth as Quatre and Heero.  
  
The door opened again, and shut. It had to be Trowa. No one said   
  
anything to him, and I felt Heero's arms stiffen. The bed shifted   
  
down a little, as he sat down at the foot.   
  
"Duo," Trowa said softly. "I'm sorry--"  
  
"It's okay." I sniffled again and resisted the urge to wipe my   
  
nose on the back of my hand. "I needed it. I was scared."  
  
"Alright," was all he said.  
  
It took too much energy to hold my head up. I gave up and rested   
  
my cheek on Quatre's shoulder again. I wasn't shivering any more,   
  
but little tremors kept running through me. I shut my eyes.   
  
Wufei smoothed my hair back again, and then Quatre tilted my face   
  
up. He kissed me on the forehead. Any other time, it would have   
  
been weird. Instead, it was comforting. "It will be alright," he   
  
said, very quietly.  
  
I could still feel Quatre's lips pressed against my forehead. More   
  
than friends. More than family. We belonged. All of us.   
  
I let my eyes drift shut. I was so tired, so empty. I had to sleep.   
  
But I wasn't afraid, not any more. They were there. Nothing could   
  
hurt me.  
  
* * *  
  
As exhausted as I was, I didn't sleep well or long. I'd always   
  
been a light sleeper--you couldn't survive on the street or as a   
  
terrorist if you weren't, really. Normally, though, my brain acted   
  
as a filter and I only woke up if I heard something suspicious.   
  
This time every little sound made me struggle for wakefulness.   
  
And the nightmares. Oh God...the nightmares. So much for dreams   
  
not bothering me any more.  
  
Every time I began to wake, though, someone was there, either   
  
sitting by my bed or even laying next to me to reassure me that I   
  
was safe and could go back to sleep. I knew Wufei took his turn,   
  
because I once again woke to the sound of him quietly reading to   
  
me in Chinese. Another time, I started to struggle into   
  
wakefulness and I heard the comforting, even blur of words that   
  
sounded like a prayer. The familiar sound calmed me.  
  
I woke up for good when the world outside my window was just   
  
starting to lighten. I didn't see sunrise very often, and when I   
  
did, it was always from the wrong end. It wasn't a very welcome   
  
sight. Some people say that things will always look better in the   
  
morning. That's bullshit. I was just as scared as I had been when   
  
I went to sleep. The only improvement was that I wasn't   
  
freezing my ass off any more.  
  
I shuddered and sat up quickly, rubbing my bare arms. I was   
  
breathing heavily, like I'd been running or something, and beads   
  
of sweat ran down my forehead. That last nightmare had certainly   
  
been interesting. Like an instant replay of the fun and games   
  
yesterday, but with Quatre and Trowa and Heero and Wufei instead   
  
of the other students. Lovely.  
  
I covered my mouth and manfully fought off the urge to retch.   
  
Throwing up wasn't going to do anything for me other than make me   
  
feel even more shitty, especially since I didn't have anything in   
  
my stomach. No, what I really wanted was to take a shower and just   
  
wash away all the dirt that yesterday had put there...those   
  
hands...  
  
Unfortunately, I knew that it wasn't filth I could just wash away.   
  
I wasn't sure if I'd ever be clean again.  
  
At that thought, I did retch. Immediately, there was a soft rustle   
  
from the vicinity of Heero's bed and then a cool hand touched my   
  
forehead. I closed my eyes as he wrapped his arm around my waist.  
  
"Calm down," Heero murmured. "You're starting to hyperventilate   
  
again."  
  
I nodded and concentrated on my breathing. In and out. Slow and   
  
steady. Focus in on the sound of your own heartbeat, and listen to   
  
it until it slows down. Feel every individual muscle in your body   
  
and make them all relax, one by one. The entire touchy-feely-one-  
  
with-the-universe   
  
routine that Wufei had taught me a couple months back was tedious,   
  
boring, and just what I needed. It got my mind off of my   
  
nightmares and washed away all my thoughts while I concentrated on   
  
just controlling my own body. It took a while before I had   
  
everything back to normal, though. I was having a hard time   
  
concentrating.  
  
Heero backed off as soon as I had everything under control again.   
  
He handed me a cup of water and sat down on the wooden chair that   
  
was still in its eternal place beside my bed. For a long moment, I   
  
just stared into the water, like I thought I was going to find   
  
answers or some kind of weird salvation in it. No such luck. I   
  
took a cautious sip. The water was warm; I guess it'd been sitting   
  
out for a while.  
  
After I'd finished attempting to communicate with the spirit of   
  
the glass of water, Heero spoke up. "Are you okay?."   
  
I snorted and inhaled some of the water, then coughed it out.   
  
After that little bit of excitement was over, I laughed. "Why does   
  
everyone keep asking me that?" I asked through my giggles. They   
  
sounded very unhealthy. My voice wasn't normally that high-pitched.   
  
"The answer's pretty damn obvious, isn't it?"  
  
"True," Heero said.  
  
I made myself stop laughing by running through Wufei's touchy-  
  
feely routine again. Hey, becoming one with the universe is harder   
  
than it sounds. Really, though, it was a good exercise, and I   
  
shouldn't have made fun of Wufei like that. Not that I was going   
  
to stop. I finished the water off in a couple of gulps and then   
  
let my hands drop to my lap, still holding the cup. I could feel a   
  
little breeze where no breeze had gone before, and I adjusted the   
  
blanket with one hand before I went back to holding the cup. Silly,   
  
I know, considering only a few hours before I'd been wearing even   
  
less than a blanket and crying like a baby. Dignity was dignity,   
  
though. I only had a couple pathetic shreds left, but I was going   
  
to hold on to those with a death grip.   
  
The silence stretched out longer and longer between us. I slowly   
  
turned the cup in my hands, concentrating on the smooth, clean   
  
texture of the glass underneath my fingers. I could see the   
  
distorted reflection of my hands on it.   
  
Finally, I couldn't take it any longer and turned to look at Heero.   
  
He was staring at me, completely frozen.  
  
"What? Do I have something on my face?" I asked with a nervous   
  
laugh. I wasn't quite sure what to do.   
  
Heero reached out and grabbed my left wrist, pulling my arm toward   
  
him. I jerked at the touch and had to put a lot of effort into not   
  
pulling away. The occasions when Heero touched me were too rare to   
  
waste as far as I was concerned, no matter how much they freaked   
  
me out at the time.   
  
He was staring down at my arm. "What are you looking at?" I asked,   
  
then looked down, a little curious. My wrist looked delicate   
  
against his hand. I was wiry rather than outright muscular like   
  
Heero, so I'd always look like a peanut next to him. I had a   
  
couple fading bruises and healing scrapes on the inside of my arm.   
  
There were some old scars, too. Nothing interesting as far as I   
  
could see. Nothing new.   
  
It took a minute for me to realize what he found so fascinating.   
  
One long, thin scar ran halfway up my lower arm, starting at my   
  
wrist. It had faded now, but it was still pretty visible against   
  
my skin; shiny white and puckered. "You haven't seen it before,   
  
have you?" I asked quietly. When Heero had... come back... I'd   
  
still been wearing bandages. I'd graduated straight to long   
  
sleeved shirts and hadn't worn anything else since then. People   
  
tended to get disconcerted when they saw my scars, especially when   
  
they were still pretty pink and new, and hell, I'll admit, they   
  
disconcerted me too.   
  
He touched my arm with his other hand, and gently traced the line   
  
of the scar with his fingertips. It tingled.  
  
That, I couldn't quite handle. I pulled my wrist out of his grasp   
  
as quickly as possible, and wonder of wonders, he let go.   
  
He looked up at me. "You cut along the vein."   
  
I nodded. "I try to do things right whenever the opportunity   
  
presents itself."  
  
That got the desired reaction from Heero. He snorted, and the   
  
intensity in his eyes faded back to normal levels. "I... don't   
  
remember," he said tonelessly.  
  
"That's not surprising, considering you were doing a good cadaver   
  
impression at the time." I shrugged. "Don't worry about it. You're   
  
alive, I'm alive, so everything's okay." /I wish./   
  
"Why?"  
  
I knew what he meant, and I shrugged again. "I can't really say. I   
  
wasn't exactly myself right then. Suicide normally ain't my style.   
  
And I don't like to think about it too much now. You're here, so I   
  
don't have to remember."  
  
He shook his head. "Are you going to be alight?"  
  
I hugged my knees to my chest, fighting off the cold that was   
  
creeping up on me. "I don't know." I mumbled. I just wanted to   
  
forget what had happened.  
  
"Do you want to talk?"  
  
The irony was a little much. Heero asking me to talk. God had such   
  
a sense of humor. "No. I don't even want to think about it. Ever."   
  
He didn't push the point. If I had been able to feel anything, I   
  
would have been relieved. At that point in time, I just didn't   
  
care. He shifted so he could dig around in his pocket. "I almost   
  
forgot..." he said, then held a hand out. "Here."  
  
I grinned. It felt good that I had something to grin about. "Thank   
  
you!" I said, and grabbed the cross that was dangling from between   
  
his fingers. I hadn't even really thought of it until now, but I   
  
felt a small part of my anxiety go away. It was easy to slip the   
  
chain over my head, and my braid   
  
didn't even catch in it too badly. The cross settled against my   
  
chest comfortably. It was warm from being in Heero's pocket.   
  
"Thank you." I said again.  
  
"I found it in the parking lot." He shrugged. "I thought you'd   
  
need it. We're going to go hunting tonight."  
  
I looked up, suddenly feeling cold. "What?" This wasn't happening.   
  
No. Bad Heero.  
  
"The mission is getting too intense. We need to finish it now."  
  
Heero was certainly back to normal, like he hadn't been acting at   
  
all strange a moment before. He had that fanatical 'man on a   
  
mission' glint in his eye. I shook my head. "Count me out." Nuh uh.   
  
No way in hell, you little son of a bitch.  
  
You would have thought that I'd said the sky was green, the way he   
  
looked at me. "What?"  
  
"I said no. I couldn't stand up against what they sent after me   
  
yesterday. There's no way I'm going to be effective against them.   
  
I'm too scared." I said. That's me, Duo the logical. No, Duo the   
  
freaked.  
  
"They were playing head games with you." Heero shrugged.   
  
I nodded in agreement. "They won." Surprise, surprise. Duo has   
  
left the building.  
  
Heero's eyebrows raised. "That's it?"  
  
"Yeah, that's it. I'm scared, I'm sick, and I'm not playing any   
  
more. I'm not going to be able to beat them." /So why should I   
  
try?/  
  
The eyebrows cranked up a notch higher. "That's not like you."  
  
"I'm having a bad fucking week." I couldn't tell him the real   
  
reason why I was so scared. I could still feel that vampire's   
  
power dancing across my skin, and I remembered how good it felt. I   
  
didn't want to get any close than that, because I might not be   
  
able to say 'no' again. I just wanted to crawl into a little hole   
  
and bury myself so that no one would ever find me again.   
  
"Fine," Heero said.  
  
"Fine?" I blinked. I'd been expecting more of an argument.  
  
"Fine," he said again. "We'll leave you here, and Wufei as well in   
  
case they come back." He stood up. I could tell that he was angry,   
  
even though he was hiding it behind the usual cold Perfect Soldier   
  
Mask. Not that I cared. No matter how pissy he got, I was not   
  
doing this. Jesus himself could have come stepping out of my   
  
closet, complete with angelic choir and asked me to do it as a   
  
personal favor for him and the big daddy, and I would have happily   
  
told him to spin on it without a second thought.  
  
"You're still going against them?" Now I was shocked. I knew he   
  
was suicidal, but... stupid?  
  
"Yes." He said, looking at me coolly. "We can't fail." With that,   
  
he quietly stormed out. Somehow managing to give the distinct   
  
impression that he was slamming the door even though it shut   
  
without a sound. I just watched him go, torn between fear and   
  
anger. That had HURT.   
  
I stayed in my room the rest of the day. Heero didn't come back.  
  
* * *  
  
Heero still hadn't come back when I went to sleep. He and Quatre   
  
and Trowa were already out hunting, I guessed. For a long time, I   
  
just lay in bed and stared at the ceiling and tried not to think   
  
of all the things that could happen to them. They probably   
  
wouldn't find the vampires, since we still didn't know where to   
  
look. Yeah. Who was I trying to fool?  
  
I rolled over and put my pillow over my head and tried not to   
  
think at all. If anything happened, it would be my fault. Hell, if   
  
anything DIDN'T happen, it would still be my fault. Guilt, anyone?  
  
What kind of friend was I, that I would just turn my back at the   
  
first sign of something bad? Maybe that was why everything I loved   
  
always left me in the end. I was too weak to hold on to it.  
  
Maybe I was getting punished for not having enough faith.  
  
Ah... and there was the move from self-flagellation to depression.  
  
I growled into the mattress and cut off that train of thought.   
  
Damnit, I wasn't going to accomplish anything like that.  
  
My back muscles started protesting loudly as I got tenser and   
  
tenser while my thoughts ran around in an unhappy little circle.   
  
Finally, I curled up in a little ball, cocooned myself in the   
  
blankets and just let the world go on its merry way without me. I   
  
lay there with my pillow still over my head until I fell into an   
  
uneasy sleep.  
  
I dreamed, again. I was at the edge of the forest, kneeling in the   
  
bloody mud where Yan had been killed. His body was laying there,   
  
pale in the moonlight. I could see a white glitter in the ruin   
  
where his throat used to be. His spine. I got up to go back to the   
  
dorms, but when I turned around, the school wasn't there. It was   
  
the ruins of Maxwell Church. I could see the twisted bodies   
  
wrapped around stone and wood and steel, littered with sharp glass   
  
shards. There was blood everywhere. I could hear the flies buzzing   
  
thickly, see them flying above the corpses in dense black clouds.   
  
Some circled around me, then landed at my feet where blood was   
  
dripping from my pants onto the ground. The started to drink it   
  
off of the ragged stone.  
  
I'd done this. It was mine. It was my home.  
  
I was Death.  
  
I walked through the ruins and looked over the destruction that I   
  
had brought down. There was a child laying face down on what was   
  
left of a wall with blood running out from under its--his--face. I   
  
knew that if I turned him over, he wouldn't have a face, only a   
  
huge bullet exit wound. Further   
  
along, I could see a nun spread eagled on the ground. I'd been   
  
through this old dream, half memory and half guilty vision, so   
  
many times that I didn't even have to look at it any more to know   
  
where each body was. I'd learned not to step in the dream blood a   
  
long time ago; it was always tacky and would stick to my shoes,   
  
and then the flies would all converge on me and   
  
try to settle on my legs.   
  
I stopped by the body of another little boy. He looked a lot like   
  
Yan. His chest was riddled with tiny bullet entry wounds. I knew   
  
that if I turned him over, he didn't have a back left. But his   
  
face was still perfect and uninjured, only splattered with a   
  
little blood. If you just looked at his face, you'd believe that   
  
he would open his eyes at any moment, and smile at you, and ask   
  
you why you were so upset. Shit.  
  
Yan had looked like that.   
  
Yan. Another person that I'd killed.  
  
Yan.   
  
Something was wrong, very wrong, out of kilter. I was smelling   
  
something. It wasn't the thirsty coppery scent of freshly spilled   
  
blood, but instead the gagging, clinging stench of flesh that was   
  
just beginning to rot. It sat, sickly-sweet, on the back of my   
  
tongue, making me want to retch. Dreams weren't supposed to smell   
  
like anything, were they? It was perhaps the only blessing in   
  
it...it wasn't as real because I couldn't smell the deaths.  
  
The smell didn't belong in my dream!  
  
I threw myself into wakefulness and sat up in bed, my hands   
  
already feeling through the blankets and under my pillow, trying   
  
to find my gun. When I realized that I'd left it under my bed, I   
  
scrambled off the bed, away from the choking stench. My legs got   
  
tangled in the blanket and I fell, making a grab for the curtain.   
  
With numerous metallic popping sounds, it followed me,   
  
ripping right off of the rings it was mounted on.  
  
Suddenly, the room was flooded with pale, insane moonlight. My   
  
searching hands found the shoulder rig under my bed and I pulled   
  
it out, drawing the Browning and clicking off the safety in one   
  
smooth motion. My world fell away until I was in the static, empty   
  
white place where I stand whenever I'm about to kill, and I looked   
  
calmly down the barrel of the gun...  
  
The Browning dropped from my limp hands to the floor as I looked   
  
into Yan's flat, dead eyes. 


	12. Part 11

Acherontia Atropos Part 11  
  
The Browning dropped from my suddenly lax grip and fell to the   
  
thinly carpeted floor with a loud thud. I was lucky that it didn't   
  
choose that moment to go off and take me out.   
  
I stared into the flat, dead eyes of Yan like a deer caught by the   
  
headlights of a tractor trailer. For a long moment, I wondered if   
  
it were just a new horror that my nightmares had produced. But no,   
  
the sickly sweet smell of rotting flesh was stronger than ever,   
  
accompanied by the dull, wet scent of damp earth and death. I was   
  
awake.   
  
"No." I whispered, my voice sounding strange to my own ears. "You   
  
can't be here. You're dead." For a crazy second, I wondered if I'd   
  
dreamed it all, and that he actually was alive.  
  
No. No. It couldn't be possible.  
  
Yan continued to watch me. There was nothing in his eyes, no vital   
  
spark or hint of reflection. It was like trying to look into the   
  
eyes of one of the preserved animal specimens at the museum.   
  
"What do you want?" I whispered, very afraid. It's not often that   
  
a guy gets visited by the ripening corpse of one of his friends.   
  
This was definitely a first for me.  
  
Yan's mouth opened and moved, as if he were talking. No sound came   
  
out though, nothing but the whistling of moving air. My gaze moved   
  
slowly, reluctantly down... oh God, I didn't want to look. Yan had   
  
been buried in a suit. It still looked starched and pressed, like   
  
he'd just taken it out of his closet and put it on. he high collar   
  
was buttoned and he was wearing a tie, but I could still see a bit   
  
of his neck. The gaping hole was still there; it looked like some   
  
giant had reached down and just scooped half of his neck away. Air   
  
was rushing out through the gap between the collar and his throat.  
  
I covered my mouth with one hand. Of course, he couldn't talk. No   
  
vocal cords. No throat. It all made perfect sense. A hysterical   
  
little giggle started bubbling up inside me, and I fought it off.   
  
If I started laughing now, I'd never stop. Stop. "Please stop," I   
  
said, very carefully.  
  
Yan stopped moving his mouth. Once again, he just looked at me.   
  
There was something in his empty gaze, as strange as it seemed. He   
  
was expecting something. No, not just expecting. Needing.  
  
Needing me to command him, to give him something to do. The   
  
knowledge came to me, the thought forming completely unbidden in   
  
my subconscious.  
  
Oh shit...he was looking at me for orders. What the hell was going   
  
on?  
  
I shivered. Static energy crawled along my skin, making every hair   
  
on my body stand on end. I was overflowing, there was too much...   
  
too much what?   
  
My hands stung, and I looked down at them. Blood glittered on my   
  
palms, welling up from four cuts that I'd made there with my   
  
fingernails. I'd been clenching my hands in my sleep.  
  
And now that I was awake and looking at the blood, I needed to do   
  
something. I shook my head, trying to dislodge the weird thoughts   
  
that were creeping through my mind. I could almost feel that cold,   
  
dark energy dancing along my fingertips in the moonlight. I had   
  
to...  
  
I held out a shaking hand toward Yan. Blood droplets glittered on   
  
my fingertips. I spoke, the words drawn from me reluctantly by the   
  
power. "Drink," I said, my voice husky in my ears. "Take the   
  
offering and walk again."  
  
The corpse...  
  
No, that wasn't right.  
  
Zombie. Yes. It was a zombie--didn't need any more urging. It   
  
grabbed my wrist and pulled me forward, then began to suck the   
  
blood from my fingers. Its hand was hard and cold, its skin   
  
faintly waxy. A dry, leathery tongue rasped against my fingertips,   
  
and I let out a soft, frightened whimper and tried to pull my hand   
  
away. The zombie clung like a limpet, making a protesting almost-  
  
sound, and continued to lap at the blood. I stopped trying to get   
  
away when its grip tightened enough to make the bones of my wrist   
  
grind together. When it had finished with my fingers, the zombie   
  
turned its attention to the still bleeding wounds on the palm of   
  
my hand and began to drink from them. It looked at me the entire   
  
time.  
  
I was caught in its gaze, frozen. With each passing minute, the   
  
zombie's eyes became less flat, less dead. There was something   
  
shining in them--not life, it couldn't be that--but awareness.   
  
Knowledge. Self. Just as weird, its neck healed as I watched,   
  
shiny white scar tissue closing over the gaping hole.  
  
My nerves protested like all hell when the zombie began sucking at   
  
the cuts. The pain brought me back, and I suddenly realized that I   
  
was just standing there, letting something that just crawled out   
  
of the ground drink my blood. Oh God. I tried to pull my hand back   
  
again. The zombie mewled out a pathetic protest. "Let go," I said,   
  
sharply.   
  
It did exactly as it was told, and I stumbled back a step and ran   
  
the backs of my legs into Heero's bed. I just wanted to laugh. It   
  
was mine, all mine. I'd created it, brought it to me, and now it   
  
was mine to command. A strange kind of elation welled up inside me,   
  
and I felt the dark energy stir, pulling toward the zombie. I   
  
wanted to touch it again, to share my blood with it. It was mine.   
  
My child...  
  
/Stop that!/ I told myself. This was too freaky.  
  
The zombie stared at me again. Its lips were dark with blood. We   
  
watched each other for an eternal second, and then the zombie   
  
licked its lips. It was as if that little bit made all of the   
  
blood, magic, or whatever reach critical mass. Suddenly, the   
  
zombie's entire posture changed. It was no longer stiff and dead,   
  
though it wasn't quite alive.   
  
It looked at me, and Self flooded into its eyes. "Duo?" it said   
  
with Yan's voice, inflections, and everything. "What's going on?"   
  
It--no, shit, I couldn't think of the zombie as an it any more,   
  
not when it was looking at me like that--HE sounded like a lost,   
  
scared little boy.  
  
I took an involuntary step back, toward the door. The zombie took   
  
a step toward me.  
  
That was it. "Stay there!" I yelled, my voice cracking. I backed   
  
away more quickly, even though the zombie obeyed my command. This   
  
had to be a bad dream. I ran my back into the door and yelped.  
  
Yan the zombie watched me, a mixture of curiosity and hurt on his   
  
dead face. "Duo, what's wrong?" he asked.  
  
That was too much. I fumbled for the doorknob, not looking away   
  
from the zombie, and managed to get the door open.  
  
I slammed the door behind me as soon as I was out in the hall,   
  
then ran the short distance to Wufei's room. My breath was sobbing   
  
in my throat, coming way too fast. "Wufei!" I said as loudly as I   
  
dared, knocking on the door. There was no answer. "Wufei!" My   
  
voice shook. I knew on an intellectual level that the zombie would   
  
still be back in my room, waiting for the next order... but my   
  
intellect was definitely not at home. I could all too easily   
  
imagine the zombie creeping up behind me, reaching out for me in   
  
classic "Night of the Living Dead" style.  
  
Oh God. Oh God. Oh God...  
  
"Wufei!" I gave up any pretense at being quiet. If the other guys   
  
in the hall had a problem, THEY could go deal with the damn zombie.   
  
I pounded on the door. Still no answer, and for one terrible   
  
moment I imagined that another zombie had come and gotten Wufei,   
  
and any minute the one in my room would change its mind about   
  
obeying me and eat my brain like so many licorice all-sorts. My   
  
knees gave out and crashed into Wufei's door and slid slowly down   
  
its smooth surface until I was on the floor. I continued to hit   
  
the door with one hand. The cuts in my palm had reopened, leaving   
  
little smears of blood on the door every time I hit it.  
  
There was a soft sound beyond the door, and it was suddenly jerked   
  
open. I fell over, caught completely off guard, and ended up   
  
sprawling at Wufei's feet. His hair was hanging around his face,   
  
and he was wearing only a pair of pants. "Duo?" He asked,   
  
incredulous. "What's wrong?"  
  
I was feeling a little upset. Yan dying, I could handle. Dead was   
  
dead, no changing it, I wouldn't be Shinigami if I didn't know   
  
that. But... now... he wasn't dead. Kind of. Because of me.  
  
So I went into a round of hysterics.  
  
Wufei handled it pretty well, I think. I threw myself at him and   
  
locked my arms around his waist, and he didn't push me away.   
  
Instead, he awkwardly returned my desperate embrace. He didn't do   
  
that sort of thing very often. He stood there and half held me and   
  
listened to me babble for several minutes before he realized that   
  
I wasn't going to just calm down on my own. Then he pushed me away   
  
slightly, grabbed my arms, and shook me once, very firmly.  
  
The sound of my teeth rattling in my head brought me back to my   
  
senses. My breath came in rapid gasps. I concentrated on slowing   
  
down until a small measure of coherency returned to my thoughts.  
  
"Okay, Duo." Wufei said, a great deal more calm than he had any   
  
right to be. Then again, he didn't know about the dead guy in my   
  
room yet. "What's going on?"  
  
I took a long, deep breath. "Yan." I said, very softly. "He's...   
  
in my room."  
  
Wufei's eyebrows shot up almost to his hairline. "What?"  
  
"Yan's in my room!" I shouted, my voice cracking.   
  
To Wufei's credit, he didn't ask questions or patronize me. I   
  
guessed that after the week we'd all been having, he was pretty   
  
much willing to believe anything. "Can I let go of you now?" he   
  
asked.  
  
I nodded, not trusting myself to talk again. He let go of my arms,   
  
then disappeared into his room for a moment. When he came back out,   
  
he was tugging on a shirt one handed and holding his sword.   
  
Wordlessly, we walked down the hall to my room. Wufei opened my   
  
door and took a cautious look inside.  
  
If he saw anything, he didn't give any outward sign. For a crazy   
  
minute, I wondered if it had been a nightmare, and I'd gotten   
  
Wufei out of bed for nothing. God, I hoped it was a nightmare. I'd   
  
take the ass kicking without a complaint.  
  
Wufei took a deliberate step back and quietly shut the door. His   
  
face had taken on a pale, sickly tinge. "That," he said very   
  
carefully, "is impossible."  
  
My eyes widened. I hadn't heard Wufei sound like that very often.   
  
He was afraid. The only thing that was keeping him from breaking   
  
down like me was the fact that he was Wufei, and Wufei would never   
  
let anyone see him like that. I fell back against the wall with a   
  
solid thump and slid down until I was sitting on the floor. I   
  
wanted to laugh. "Oh good," I said. "That means I must be   
  
imagining it."  
  
Wufei took in a deep breath and let it out slowly. "Did it attack   
  
you?"  
  
I shook my head.  
  
"Did it act hostile at all?"  
  
I shook my head again. "It..." I took a deep breath and tried   
  
again. My words came out in a rush. "It's waiting for me to tell   
  
it to do something."  
  
Wufei's eyes widened. "What?"  
  
I scrubbed at my eyes with one hand, the hand that the zombie   
  
hadn't touched. "It's waiting for me to give it orders. It's   
  
mine."  
  
"How...?"  
  
"I don't know. Jesus, I don't know." I actually started laughing.   
  
I put my face in one hand and slammed the other into the floor.   
  
Hard. The pain shocked me enough that I managed to pull myself out   
  
of another looming bout of hysteria. "God, Wufei... when are our   
  
lives ever going to go back to normal?"   
  
Wufei crouched down until he was level with me. "I don't know," he   
  
said. "Were they that normal to begin with?"  
  
I snorted. "God, I don't know how you handle this so well."  
  
"It's happening to you, not me. I'm only effected because I am   
  
your friend...so I am at least getting a choice as to whether or   
  
not I want to get involved," he pointed out. "Besides, maybe you   
  
only think I'm taking it well. Maybe once the zombie's taken care   
  
of, I'm going to go back to my room, lock myself in, and draw on   
  
the walls for a while."  
  
The comment had its desired effect. I laughed, and it wasn't   
  
tainted with panic in the slightest. The image of Wufei, barefoot   
  
and with his hair loose, drawing on the walls with scented   
  
permanent markers was just too ridiculous. I felt calmer almost   
  
immediately, a little removed from the problem. If Wufei could   
  
handle it, so could I, damnit.  
  
I've said it before, and I'll say it again. God, Wufei is one cool   
  
cucumber.  
  
"You win." I said. "I'm okay now." I took a deep breath. No, I   
  
wasn't okay, but at least I was in control. "What do we do?"  
  
"We go inside and see what it wants. It came from somewhere. We   
  
send it back." It sounded so simple when he said it. Maybe it was   
  
that easy. I hoped so. Sometimes I wished I could see the world in   
  
simple terms like Wufei seemed to. There's a fight, so you apply   
  
sufficient force to the enemy that you will leave nothing standing.   
  
There is a wrong, so you right it. There's a pervert groping you,   
  
so you kick him in the nuts. There's not enough rice, so you go   
  
buy more. There's a reanimated, ripe-smelling corpse standing in   
  
your friends' rooms, so you go in and ask it what it wants, then   
  
send it home. See? Fits right in.  
  
I nodded shakily and stood up. He followed me when I walked into   
  
my room. It was the bravest thing I'd done all week.  
  
The zombie was standing where I'd left it--him. When I came in, he   
  
looked at me, and I only had one name for the expression on his   
  
face. He was hurt. I suddenly felt like a heel, which seemed   
  
pretty ridiculous. I was feeling bad about hurting the feelings of   
  
a corpse.   
  
But damnit, corpses weren't supposed to look so...alive.  
  
"Duo?" Yan looked up at me. There was still a strange flatness in   
  
his eyes, like he was lacking some vital spark. Well, duh. But at   
  
the same time, they were still Yan's eyes, and there was still a   
  
measure of intelligence and self awareness in them. "What's going   
  
on? What am I doing here?"   
  
I carefully moved past him and sat on my bed. Wufei stayed   
  
standing, by the door, still holding his sword. "What do you want,   
  
Yan?" I asked, keeping my voice carefully neutral.  
  
If anything, the question seemed to just confuse him more.   
  
"Want...?" he said wonderingly, as if the thought that he might   
  
actually want something was completely foreign to him.  
  
I glanced at Wufei. Wufei shrugged. Big help there. So I tried   
  
again. "Why are you here?" When in doubt, rephrase the question.  
  
Yan suddenly smiled. Boyish. Innocent. All American. If you   
  
ignored the fact that he was dead and smelled, that is. "You   
  
called me."  
  
"I *WHAT*?" I nearly yelled. That wasn't the answer I had been   
  
expecting.  
  
Yan regarded me unblinkingly. "You called me," he repeated.  
  
I looked at Wufei. He shrugged. I resisted the urge to hit him.   
  
"Called you from where?"  
  
Yan hesitated. "My... room?" It sounded more like a question than   
  
an answer.  
  
I knew THAT wasn't it. I shook my head. "Try to remember."  
  
"But where would I be if I wasn't in my room?"  
  
It didn't seem right for a zombie to sound so... lost. They were   
  
supposed to try to eat people, and stumble around moaning "fresh   
  
meat" or something like that. At least if you believed the movies.   
  
"I hate to tell you this, man, but you're dead."  
  
"I am?"   
  
I nodded. God, this was so weird. "A vampire ripped your throat   
  
out. It's hard to get deader than that."  
  
Yan reached up and cautiously touched his neck. His eyes widened.   
  
"I don't remember..."  
  
"That's probably for the best," Wufei murmured.   
  
Yan looked at Wufei. He smiled. He'd always liked Wufei. His   
  
attention came back to me almost immediately, though. I was the   
  
focus of his world. "I'm... dead," he said quietly, as if he were   
  
testing out the idea. "My parents are sad, aren't they."  
  
"A lot of us are." I said, just as quietly. "Some of the guys are   
  
out, right now, looking for the monsters that killed you." Shit.   
  
The guys. They wouldn't believe this.  
  
"Can I go home?" he asked.  
  
I shook my head quickly. "I don't think that would be a good idea.   
  
Your parents already got a bad shock when you died. If you showed   
  
back up, I don't know how they'd take it."  
  
He nodded. "You're right. So I'm dead." He was so trusting. It   
  
only made   
  
me feel worse.  
  
"Yes." At least he wasn't in denial about it. I don't know what I   
  
would have done about that.  
  
"Then I should go back to being dead, shouldn't I?" he said slowly.   
  
His voice immediately firmed, and he nodded, as if he liked the   
  
idea. "I should get put back."  
  
Great. Never mind the fact that I had no idea how to do it. Then   
  
again, I hadn't had the foggiest clue on how to bring someone back   
  
as a zombie to begin with. Maybe whatever it was that told me how   
  
to start this little adventure would tell me how to finish it.   
  
"Where did you come from?"  
  
Yan shrugged. No help there.  
  
Wufei cleared his throat. "There's a graveyard a few miles   
  
northwest. That is most likely." I blinked. I hadn't known that.   
  
Wufei smirked. "It pays to be thorough in one's reconnaissance."   
  
I rolled my eyes. Of course. Wufei seriously needed a life if he   
  
spent his time scouting around for graveyards, but I wasn't going   
  
to say that, considering he'd just saved my ass. "Okay, then.   
  
We'll go there. Sound good to everyone?" No objections. Great.   
  
Take charge, Duo. As I stood, a strange thought came to mind.   
  
"Wufei, do you have some salt?"  
  
Wufei had been turning to leave, but he stopped at my question. "I   
  
might have some in my room. Why?"  
  
"Don't know." I shrugged. It had been a weird, stupid idea that   
  
came up from my subconscious. Considering all the interesting   
  
things that had been coming up from that part of my mind lately, I   
  
wasn't going to argue with it.   
  
Wufei obviously was thinking along the same lines as me. "I'll go   
  
check." he said.  
  
* * *  
  
When we consulted with a map, we found that the graveyard was   
  
closer to five miles away. Too long to walk in as little time as   
  
we had until dawn. I knew I sure as hell didn't want to get caught   
  
walking around with Yan's animated corpse. So we hot-wired one of   
  
the cars in the teacher's parking lot, a truck that belonged to   
  
one of the night janitors. Wufei drove. I wasn't feeling too   
  
confident in my ability to do anything that required any amount of   
  
focus.  
  
After a little discussion and shuffling, Yan got relegated to the   
  
back. As sorry as I felt for him, I didn't want to deal with how   
  
he smelled in close quarters. I figured that if the back of the   
  
truck smelled a bit off when we returned it, well... hopefully the   
  
janitor wouldn't notice. There were all sorts of cleaning supplies   
  
and implements back there. Maybe he'd figure that he hadn't rinsed   
  
his mop out well enough or something. Let someone else deal with a   
  
damn mystery for once.  
  
The ride to the cemetery was silent. Yan wouldn't speak unless   
  
spoken to, and neither Wufei or I really felt like talking. Once   
  
we got there and unloaded Yan, we had another problem.  
  
"Where the hell did you get buried?" I asked the dead guy, more   
  
than a bit exasperated. The cemetery was huge. Acres of crosses   
  
and weathered stone angels, tall headstones covered with kanji and   
  
english characters, as far as the eye could see. Looking for one   
  
grave would take forever.   
  
"I don't know." Yan shrugged. "I just remember coming to your   
  
room."  
  
Great.  
  
"This is an old graveyard," Wufei said. "There won't be many new   
  
graves. So we look for freshly disturbed sod or dirt."  
  
It was a better than being completely clueless, but for some   
  
reason, the thought of wandering around in a huge, old grave yard   
  
in the middle of the night looking for a small patch of freshly   
  
disturbed earth just did not turn me on. Call me weird. "Wait, I   
  
have a better idea." I glanced at Yan. "Does your family have a   
  
plot in this cemetery, maybe somewhere you guys would   
  
visit?"  
  
Yan nodded slowly. "I think so. Yes. I remember where it is."  
  
I grinned. "Bingo. Take us there, then." Yan the zombie nodded and   
  
chose one of the gravel paths to walk down. Wufei and I followed   
  
him. None of us spoke; the only sound was gravel crunching beneath   
  
our feet.  
  
I watched Yan walking ahead of me. He had his hands in his pockets.   
  
That was another thing. I thought zombies were supposed to shuffle.   
  
And do so while holding their arms stiffly out in front of them. I   
  
would really have to have a talk with the guys that thought up   
  
horror flicks some time. So far, they were batting zero.   
  
Yan's family plot was pretty far from the front gate of the   
  
cemetery. It was on the outskirts; there were trees on almost all   
  
sides of it, and a fence. End of the road. There were several   
  
large grave markers, all of them covered with the graceful,   
  
spidery shapes of hundreds of kanji. I could only understand about   
  
half of them, but the effect itself was pretty. They glimmered in   
  
the moonlight; the characters had been filled in with silver   
  
leafing. Yan's grave was the only relatively new one. There were   
  
two wreaths of flowers set up by it, and an easel with Yan's   
  
picture on it. The picture was draped in black so it looked like   
  
the kanji number four. /Shi./ Death. Yan in the picture was   
  
smiling. His hair was slicked back perfectly and he was in his   
  
uniform.   
  
Strangely enough, the earth over the grave wasn't disturbed. It   
  
just looked like it had settled--there was a depression in the   
  
grass. Yan obviously hadn't clawed his way up through the earth   
  
like in the movies...  
  
/Geeze, man,/ I hissed at myself in annoyance, /enough with the   
  
damn horror movies./  
  
Some days, I really wonder about myself. Other days, I know.  
  
I cleared my throat and looked at Yan. "Looks like the end of the   
  
road, man."  
  
He nodded and stood by his grave. None of us moved for a moment.   
  
Finally, he looked at me, his face expressionless. "Will it hurt?"   
  
he asked.  
  
I hesitated. "I don't know," I said honestly, "I don't think it   
  
will, though."  
  
He nodded. "Then put me back. I'm tired."  
  
At his quiet words, a lump formed in my throat. I blinked my eyes   
  
quickly. Damnit, I was not going to cry. I took a deep breath. The   
  
air tasted tired, faintly moldy and full of the earthy scents of   
  
fresh dirt and old death. "Okay..." I said. "Okay..." I turned let   
  
myself go. I didn't have any better ideas.  
  
As soon as I stopped trying to keep it out, the cool, electrical   
  
power crashed through me, leaving me gasping as if I'd just been   
  
dunked in freezing water. All of my nerve endings were sensitized;   
  
I could feel the slightest breeze, could almost feel the tiny   
  
pressure of the moonlight on my skin. I couldn't give it direction,   
  
because I didn't know what to do with it, so it rushed into the   
  
ground madly, leaving me tingling with its constant flow.  
  
But it was more than that. I could see underground, into the   
  
graves, through the grass and dirt and wood of the coffins.   
  
Skeletons and rotted corpses caught my attention, and I could see   
  
each one in my mind's eye. One woman, now nothing more than dust,   
  
lay in her grave like so, though there was no longer enough of her   
  
left that her position could be discerned with sight. Another   
  
grave held three corpses stacked one on top of each other, ancient   
  
on the bottom, barely fifty years dead on top. I could taste the   
  
last glimmerings of the people that had left the bodies behind,   
  
roll the feel of them between my fingers and tell how old they   
  
were, when they died.  
  
"Duo," Wufei said, his voice strained.   
  
I opened my eyes slowly, turning to look at Wufei. All around,   
  
small clusters of lights or mist had sprung from the graves. I   
  
knew that they were ghosts - corpse candles - without knowing   
  
precisely why. They were the last gasps of personalities and souls   
  
that had long since moved on, but had been strong enough, angry   
  
enough to stain the ground over them with their presence.   
  
"Ignore them," I said, my voice very calm. "They can't hurt you if   
  
you ignore them."  
  
I turned my eyes back to Yan--no, what was left of Yan. There was   
  
no soul there, only the short-lived memory of who he had been   
  
moving the body, using the vital spark of power that I had given   
  
him. My zombie. My... child. I had called him, and now he was   
  
tired, ready for to rest once more.   
  
I stepped forward, tearing at the scabs on my hand until one came   
  
free and blood welled from the newly reopened wound in a hot line.   
  
The blood clung to my fingertips. I wiped it gently on Yan's lips.   
  
He watched me, his eyes wide and frightened. He couldn't   
  
understand what I was doing. I wasn't sure if I understood, myself.   
  
My hand went to my pocket, and I pulled out the small paper packet   
  
of salt that Wufei had found for me. my guess was that he'd   
  
liberated it from a fast food restaurant at some point. That   
  
wasn't important though. The salt itself was. I sprinkled the salt   
  
on Yan's shoulders, and he shuddered.  
  
"With blood and earth, I bind thee. Return to thy rest and walk no   
  
more," I said, very softly. I couldn't believe the words that were   
  
coming out of my mouth. Too strange for me.  
  
Yan closed his eyes, and smiled. "Thank you," he whispered.   
  
I took him by the arms and helped him lay down on his grave. The   
  
grass and soil flowed over him like water until he was hidden from   
  
sight.   
  
The power inside me dried up abruptly, and I collapsed to my knees   
  
on top of Yan's grave, my hands shaking. Whatever it was that had   
  
moved me before, it was gone now. I was just Duo.  
  
Well, pretty much. Right then, I just felt like a candle that   
  
someone had left out in their car in the middle of summer.   
  
"Are you alright, Duo?" Wufei asked, kneeling by me. I hadn't   
  
heard him move.  
  
"Yeah, just peachy-keen," I said. "Now that that little adventure   
  
is over with."  
  
"Is it?" Wufei asked. He gave me a hand up. "I have a strange   
  
feeling that things are only going to get worse."  
  
I groaned, laughing. "Don't say that, man! Someone might be   
  
listening!" It felt good to laugh and relax. Things were okay now.   
  
The corpse was back in the ground. "Oh God..." I moaned, stumbling   
  
against Wufei as the enormity of what had just happened hit me   
  
like a falling pallet of bricks. "What the hell did I do?" I'd   
  
brought Yan, the boy I'd helped kill, back from the dead. This on   
  
top of everything else. Was I even human any more?  
  
Wufei caught me and held me up. "You didn't do anything," he said.   
  
"Everything that has been happening since the beginning of this   
  
mess has been caused by the vampires." I looked up. He sounded   
  
angry. "Everything," he said again. "They're the reason that the   
  
boy died. They're the ones that...assaulted you." His lips curled   
  
in distaste. "They're why the others are out in the woods tonight   
  
and we're here. Don't try to blame it on yourself." He turned his   
  
gaze on to me, and gave me a sharp shake. "Or I won't be angry   
  
with them any more. I'll save all my anger for YOU."  
  
I nodded meekly. I'd never seen Wufei in a mood quite like this   
  
before.   
  
"Understand?"  
  
I nodded again.  
  
"Good."   
  
He half carried, half dragged me back to the truck, and we drove   
  
back to the school in silence. When we were back in the dorms, I   
  
hesitated in front of my door.  
  
"Wu-man?"  
  
He stopped, halfway down the hall. "Yes?"  
  
I licked my lips nervously. This sounded really weird. "Can I   
  
sleep in your room tonight?"  
  
Wufei turned back toward me, his eyes wide with shock. Finally, he   
  
nodded. "As long as you promise not to have any more visitors."  
  
"I'll do my best." I grinned weakly and let him usher me into his   
  
room. Soon, I was ensconced on his bed.   
  
Wufei grabbed one of his extra blankets and wrapped it around   
  
himself, then sat on the floor by the door, his sword propped   
  
against his shoulder. "Go to sleep, Duo," he said quietly. "I'm   
  
watching over you."  
  
It was like before, when Quatre and Heero had held me. I suddenly   
  
felt warm and safe, because Wufei was there. I didn't have to be   
  
afraid.  
  
I lay down and drifted off to sleep. 


	13. Part 12

Acherontia Atropos Part 12  
  
I was standing in Yan's cemetery again, underneath one of the   
  
statues; this one was of an angel. The angel was looking a little   
  
worse for wear; the wings were broken and one of its hands had   
  
been severed. It still reached out its good hand in a gesture of   
  
supplication, though, and the carved face was serene, still and   
  
unchanging. It couldn't feel pain; why should it care if one of   
  
its hands was missing? There was rusted barbed wire wrapped around   
  
it, I guess to hold it together. The rust had run and stained the   
  
stone beneath it dully. It looked like blood in the moonlight.  
  
Someone was laughing, giggling quietly in a high pitched, child-  
  
like manner. I looked up, and saw Trowa and Quatre, sitting on the   
  
shoulders of the angel. They were both smiling. Wufei lay at the   
  
statue's feet, curled up in a ball like a faithful dog...or   
  
someone that was very frightened and withdrawn from reality. His   
  
shoulders trembled.  
  
The earth beneath my feet shifted, and I fell to my knees. Dew   
  
that had collected in the grass soaked my pants legs, and I was   
  
suddenly very cold. The ground shifted more, sliding around like   
  
something was moving under it, then began to flow outward, like   
  
water. A hand shot up from the grave.   
  
I stared in horrified fascination as the person struggled from the   
  
grave until the were half out of it. The boy turned toward me, and   
  
I let out a soft, whimper. He had bright red-orange hair, but his   
  
face was Heero's, and he stared at me with flat, dead, cerulean   
  
blue eyes. Heero was panting for breath as if he had just finished   
  
a long race, and his eyes filled with need.  
  
My hand stung. I looked down, and blood welled up from between my   
  
fingers. Slowly, I held my hand out toward Heero. It was right. He   
  
was mine.  
  
Mine.  
  
"Drink, Heero. Take the offering and walk again." A large, fat   
  
drop of blood fell from my hand and hit the grass. Energy danced   
  
along my skin, seeking a home. Heero grabbed my wrist and sucked   
  
the blood from my fingers, tugging at the power deep inside of me.   
  
Darkness washed over his hair, changing it to crimson, then black,   
  
and I smiled softly, my eyes fluttering shut...  
  
"DUO!"  
  
Strong hands grabbed my shoulders and my eyes flew open. I let out   
  
a loud, very high pitched yelp, flailing wildly. I was hopelessly   
  
tangled in the sheets. Immediately, Wufei let me go and backed off,   
  
rubbing his ear with one hand and directing a grimace at me.  
  
When I freed myself, I sat up, carefully pulling the sheets up   
  
over my lap. God, that had been weird. Especially taking in to   
  
account the way it was effecting me... I managed not to blush   
  
through sheer force of will, and I looked Wufei in the eye. Either   
  
he hadn't seen anything or he was being tactful. Considering that   
  
Wufei was normally about as subtle and tactful as a rhinoceros   
  
horn up the backside, I was going to vote for option one and hope   
  
I was right. "What?" I said, somehow managing to keep my confusion   
  
out of my voice. Point for me.  
  
"You were moaning in your sleep." Wufei said. "Bad dream?"  
  
I shifted uncomfortably and cleared my throat. "You could say   
  
that," I murmured. Hey, Heero crawling out of a grave certainly   
  
qualified as nightmare material! I'd just forget about the rest of   
  
it. I glanced at the window, deciding that a change of subject was   
  
in order. Dull light was slowly trickling in through a crack in   
  
the curtains. It was still pretty early, then. "What time is it?"   
  
I asked.  
  
"About 7:30 in the morning," Wufei said.  
  
I nodded. That felt about right, according to my (faulty) internal   
  
clock. "Have the guys come back yet?"  
  
Wufei shook his head. "Not that I know of. I haven't heard them   
  
come in."  
  
"Were you awake the whole time?" Great, now came the guilt.  
  
He shook his head again, smirking slightly. "I slept. I simply   
  
remained alert for any activity occurring outside the room. No one   
  
has come in or gone out, as far as I could hear." He rubbed his   
  
ear and shot me a nasty look. "Though I can't say how much I'll be   
  
hearing, now. Someone could probably march a Gundam down the hall   
  
and I wouldn't hear."  
  
"That's what you get for startling me," I said, and stuck my   
  
tongue out at him. "Excuse me if I've been feeling a little more   
  
high strung than normal, lately."  
  
Wufei shrugged, and I shifted uncomfortably. "Hey, Wu-man, mind if   
  
I use your bathroom?"  
  
He shook his head. "Go ahead."  
  
I looked at him. He looked at me. Neither of us moved, and he   
  
raised an eyebrow. I reeeeeally wanted to blush. "Would you mind   
  
doing me a huge favor?"  
  
"What?"  
  
"Would you mind grabbing me some fresh clothes out of my room so I   
  
don't have to streak across the hall in a towel?"  
  
For a long moment, I thought he was going to argue. His eyebrow   
  
cranked up to nearly his hairline, and he gave me an extremely   
  
hard, skeptical look. I smiled winsomely. That's me. Duo the lost,   
  
cute little waif. "Fine," he said. Go me. I'm so cute that not   
  
even Wufei can resist my charms. Right.  
  
As soon as Wufei had left the room and the door shut behind him,   
  
the blush I'd been holding in for the last few minutes suddenly   
  
manifested. My face felt like it was on fire, but then again, I   
  
was feeling a bit warm all over. I scrambled out from the tangle   
  
of sheets on the bed and hurried to the bathroom, shutting and   
  
locking the door behind me. I needed a cold shower. Yeah, that was   
  
it. The cure for all ills, even weird ass dreams.  
  
As soon as the freezing water hit me, I yelped and forgot how off   
  
balance I was feeling.  
  
Almost immediately, someone pounded on the bathroom door. I cursed   
  
and turned the shower off. "What the hell is it?" I yelled as I   
  
clawed my soaking hair out of my eyes with one hand and felt along   
  
the wall, attempting to figure out where the towel rack was with   
  
the other.  
  
"Duo, get out here now! We have a problem!"   
  
I paused for a moment. Wufei sounded really upset. Shit. Something   
  
bad was going down. I managed to find a towel to wrap around my   
  
waist. There wasn't an extra one for my hair, so I'd just have to   
  
drip on the floor. It was Wufei's problem to deal with,   
  
considering that he was the one hauling me out of the bathroom.   
  
After slipping on the tiled floor of the bathroom and almost   
  
cracking my head on the edge of the sink (only a desperate grab at   
  
the towel rack saved me) I managed to get the door open and   
  
stumble out into the safer, carpeted portion of the room. "What?"   
  
I demanded crankily.  
  
Wordlessly, he handed me something. "Huh?" I looked down at the   
  
little object. It took a minute for what the thing was to sink in.   
  
"Oh God!" I dropped it on the floor and covered my mouth with my   
  
hands.  
  
It was hair--three locks of hair, black, light brown, and blonde,   
  
tied together in a little bundle with a ribbon that used to be   
  
white. Used to be. It had rusty red stains all over it. Dried   
  
blood. The bits of hair were splattered liberally too; they were   
  
stiff, and the only reason I could tell the blonde hair was in   
  
fact blonde was that the ends of the lock were still relatively   
  
clean. "Oh God..." I said again, stumbling back until I hit the   
  
wall. I leaned against it.  
  
Wufei crouched and picked up the hair, a look of revulsion on his   
  
face. "This was pinned to the inside of your room's door with   
  
Quatre's butterfly."  
  
"Oh shit." I laughed, and it had a very frightening edge to it.   
  
"Can't they leave a NORMAL calling card? How about a note that   
  
says 'Yo, I have your buddies, play nice or they'll be wearing   
  
cement overshoes.' or something like that!" I trailed off into a   
  
giggle. It had to be the vampires. There was no one else it could   
  
be, and they had the guys now. I'd told Heero I wouldn't go with   
  
him. I cut down their fighting strength. Oh shit. I slid down the   
  
wall and put my face in my hands. The towel rode up a great deal,   
  
but I didn't care. Quatre and Heero and Trowa might be dead, and   
  
it was my fault. All my fault...  
  
"Stop that!" Wufei growled and grabbed me by the arms, hauling me   
  
to my feet. He slammed me roughly against the wall. "What the hell   
  
are you doing?" he hissed. "The others have been captured and you   
  
have a mental breakdown? Are you really that WEAK?"  
  
He slammed me against the wall again. Wufei's face was only inches   
  
from mine. I couldn't escape the anger in his eyes... or the fear.   
  
If they could get three of us, including Heero, we didn't have a   
  
chance...  
  
Wufei slammed me against the wall once more. "Didn't you listen to   
  
a goddamn thing I said last night, Maxwell?" he snarled.   
  
That, more than the violence, hit me like a slap in the face.   
  
Wufei had been calling me by my first name for over a year, since   
  
we became friends. And now, we were back to being strangers. What   
  
he'd said last night...  
  
For one long instant, everything inside me froze, every emotion   
  
that I'd been directing at myself. Then it exploded. Suddenly, I   
  
was angry, angrier than I'd ever been in my entire life. They were   
  
playing with me again, trying to break me so that I couldn't be a   
  
threat to them. They were using the others to mess with my mind.   
  
Hot rage flooded through me like molten metal. I grabbed the   
  
collar of Wufei's shirt roughly and pulled him close with sudden,   
  
manic strength, until our foreheads touched. His eyes widened as   
  
he looked into mine.  
  
"I," I said very carefully, "Am going to fucking KILL them." I was   
  
breathing heavily, and my arms were so tense that I shook.  
  
Suddenly, Wufei smiled. "No." he said. "WE are going to fucking   
  
kill them."  
  
***  
  
It was a unique sensation; I was so hot with anger inside that I   
  
had transcended rage. All that was left was a malevolent, deadly   
  
calm. All it took was one look at Wufei to see that he felt   
  
exactly the same way, and I knew for a fact that it was just as   
  
unusual for him as it was for me.   
  
The vampires hadn't just invaded our lives and turned our worlds   
  
upside-down. They hadn't just screwed with my head until I was   
  
reduced to a pathetic, scared little wreck. Now they had struck at   
  
the very foundation of our lives; the other pilots, the only   
  
people the Wufei and I had that we would trust, or count on, or   
  
love.   
  
More than friends. More than families. More even than our   
  
reflections in a mirror.  
  
They were OURS. This happening in war was one thing, but this   
  
wasn't war to the monsters. This was a game. Play with the funny   
  
little humans. Step on their anthill and watch them scramble. Poke   
  
them with a sharp stick.   
  
I was going to rip Cheree's head off and force feed it to her.   
  
That was just to start.  
  
Before I even knew what I was doing, I was down the hall and into   
  
my room. There was a blood stain on the back of the door, and a   
  
crack in the word where the knife had been stuck. I ignored it.   
  
Instead, I pulled on my clothes, grabbed my shoulder rig, wiggled   
  
into it, and shoved the rowning   
  
into its holster after I got the safety back on. The black   
  
windbreaker went on next, I shoved some extra ammo in the pockets,   
  
and I was good to go. The guys had taken the other guns, so I   
  
didn't have a backup weapon. After a fast stop to use the phone, I   
  
walked quickly back to Wufei's room.   
  
"Do you have a gun?" was all I asked.  
  
Wufei shook his head. "No. I prefer other weapons." He pulled the   
  
mattress off of his bed. I let off a low whistle. It looked like   
  
he was keeping an entire damn cutlery catalog's inventory under   
  
his mattress. And I'm not talking about the friendly fork and   
  
spoon kind of cutlery, either. "Go grab the coat out of my   
  
closet," he said.  
  
I did as I was told like a good little boy. There was only one   
  
coat in his closet. It was a grey trench that I'd never seen him   
  
wear before. I grabbed it off the hanger and took it over to Wufei.   
  
He was pushing down his pants legs--he'd just gotten done putting   
  
ankle sheathes on for knives. Wordlessly, I handed him the coat.  
  
"Do you want a couple?" he asked, jerking his head toward the   
  
still large selection. Then he grabbed a knife that looked more   
  
like a really short sword and tucked it down his back. The coat   
  
went over it, and he looked like little, innocent Wufei again, not   
  
the walking one-man knife show. Little innocent Wufei after he   
  
joined the mafia, that is. I snorted and grabbed a knife to tuck   
  
up my sleeve. You never can be too careful these days.   
  
"Where's the hair?" I asked. Wufei handed it to me, and I tucked   
  
it into another of the convenient pockets in my windbreaker. I had   
  
to resist the urge to wipe my hand on my pants afterwards. The   
  
thing felt very strange in a not nice sort of way. "Ok, Wu-man,   
  
ready to go?"  
  
He nodded. "I assume that you have a destination in mind."  
  
I grinned. "But of course."   
  
Half an hour later, we were standing out in front of Carmelita's.   
  
Wufei looked less than thrilled. I felt about the same. I was   
  
still too pissed to care, though. The wave of anger that was still   
  
burning me took me through the doors and up to the front desk.   
  
Hara was there, waiting for us in her usual state of undress.   
  
Fancy that. I grinned my best, most pleasant company smile for her,   
  
then cut right to the chase. "Where's Carmen?"   
  
"Carmen's getting ready to entertain a client." Hara crossed her   
  
arms, her eyes quickly taking in the store around us, to make sure   
  
there was no one there to overhear us. There wasn't. Maybe no one   
  
felt like buying porn so early on a lovely Sunday morning. Imagine   
  
that. She glared at me. "Carmen told me what you wanted her to do.   
  
I refuse to allow it."  
  
I never stopped grinning. "Why?"  
  
"We can't afford to antagonize the vampires."  
  
"Bullshit. They're messing in your territory, too."  
  
She shook her head. "No way in hell."  
  
I shook my head right back at her. "That's not the way it works,   
  
Hara. Either Carmen is going to do this for us, or you will.   
  
Either way, someone is going to tell me where I can find those   
  
assholes before I leave this store. I'd prefer it was Carmen   
  
instead of you, because I like her better, but you'll do just as   
  
well." It struck me that it might not be a good idea to piss off   
  
one of the local witches. Then it struck me that I really didn't   
  
give a shit. I'd probably get myself killed tonight, anyway.   
  
"No," she said again. "Get out."  
  
Wufei cleared his throat. "You might want to reconsider," he said,   
  
very calmly. It stuck me as kind of funny. Normally I'm the good   
  
cop.  
  
I leaned toward her, over the counter. "That's not one of the   
  
options, Hara. Look, the line's in the sand now, you're going to   
  
have to pick your side. Either your going to help me find the   
  
vampires so I can kill them, or you're going to be my enemy." My   
  
grin broadened. "And trust me, you don't want to be my enemy. All   
  
the vampires can do is screw with you, then kill you. I can do   
  
worse." I hadn't thought of it before I said it, but yeah, I   
  
guessed I could. If I could just figure out how I'd managed to   
  
call Yan to me last night, I could do a LOT worse.  
  
She stared at me, and for one moment, her eyes went completely   
  
white. Something almost like a physical blow hit me, and it was   
  
all I could do not to take a step back. My entire body started   
  
tingling with that pins and needles feeling.  
  
I gritted my teeth. "What was that?" I demanded. "Are we going to   
  
get into a pissing contest now?" My eyes narrowed, and I fumbled   
  
around internally for the power that I had felt last night, hell,   
  
every night for almost a year. It was sleepy and protested when I   
  
nudged it; the sun was out and it didn't want to play. But I woke   
  
it up anyway and did the only thing I knew how to do. I threw it   
  
at Hara.  
  
She DID take a step back. Her face was pale, and she was shaking.   
  
Oh lord, she was trembling all over. What the hell had I done?  
  
"Get Carmen now," I said. I hoped she would do it. I hoped that   
  
what I'd done would be a good enough bluff for her. I was out of   
  
mystical shit, and I was afraid that the next thing I'd have to do   
  
was go for my gun...and I learned a while back that you don't go   
  
for your gun unless you truly intend to kill someone. Heero still   
  
hadn't quite figured that one out on a subconscious level. "I   
  
don't have time for this shit. If we go into another round, I'm   
  
going to end it."  
  
Wufei stepped forward and touched Hara's arm, and smiling politely   
  
at her. Damn, he's a good actor... or maybe he just didn't like   
  
the way I was treating her. We'd hash that out later. I knew I was   
  
in the right--she'd started it! "Get Carmen, please," was all he   
  
said.  
  
Hara jumped when he touched her arm, but she immediately relaxed.   
  
She nodded stiffly, just once, her eyes still wide and round in   
  
her face. "I'll go get her," she said. "She'll have my permission   
  
to do the spell if she can."  
  
Alright. Now for the easy part. I hoped.  
  
I'd worry about how I managed to scare the piss out of a high   
  
witch later.  
  
If there was a later. 


	14. Part 13

Acherontia Atropos Part 13  
  
Carmen didn't keep us waiting long. She came up the rickety little   
  
basement steps so fast that she was almost running while trying to   
  
tie the cord of her familiar, ratty green bathrobe. Her boobs   
  
bounced up and down as she thumped up the steps in her bare feet.   
  
I tried not to wince. Obviously, I don't have much in the chest   
  
area myself, but all I can think when I see something like that is   
  
it's gotta be as uncomfortable as hell. Carmen stopped several   
  
feet in front of me, eyeing me warily. Hara was conspicuously not   
  
behind her. I had a feeling I wouldn't be seeing her again any   
  
time soon, which was more than fine with me.  
  
"Hi Carmen," I said with a friendly smile. "I have a little job   
  
for you."  
  
"Hara told me." Carmen didn't return my smile. "I don't know what   
  
you did, but she's scared now." Suddenly, she grinned. I had a   
  
feeling that she'd liked Hara's discomfort.   
  
"So you'll help us?"  
  
"I don't have much of a choice, do I?" She pulled her robe a   
  
little more tightly around herself. Was she scared too? What an   
  
intriguing thought. And she hadn't even seen me do anything.  
  
"Nope." I grinned. "Mind if we take this somewhere else? The   
  
atmosphere is really getting to me."  
  
"That's fine. I need to be outside for this, anyway," she   
  
hesitated. "Can I go grab my clothes?"  
  
"Sure thing. We'll be waiting." I leaned back against the counter   
  
with a lot more nonchalance than I actually felt. I had absolutely   
  
no problem with Carmen getting dressed. I didn't want to attract   
  
any more attention than I had to, frankly, and it was already bad   
  
enough that Wufei was looking like an oriental junior Guido in   
  
that trench coat of his, though it was still better than the   
  
alternative. A good looking woman in a tattered, truncated green   
  
bathrobe would definitely catch some eyes.  
  
She disappeared in the back of the store. Wufei and I continued to   
  
stand at the front desk. Wufei did his best not to look at   
  
anything. I kept my eyes focused on a set of handcuffs. Still not   
  
the most innocent of objects, but a damn sight better than the   
  
other things Carmelita's had to offer. A couple of minutes later,   
  
she appeared again, dressed in a pair of tight jeans and a dark   
  
green dress shirt that was half unbuttoned, revealing a very tight   
  
white t-shirt underneath. Most of her makeup had been scraped away,   
  
and she looked almost, well...normal. It was kind of shocking. She   
  
was wearing Reeboks, for God's sake!  
  
"Ready to go?" I asked. I had to shout to be heard over the music.   
  
A new song had just started up. I was half tempted to ask Carmen   
  
if she knew what it was. I have a certain fondness for early   
  
history metal. Still, I had to stay on task.  
  
Carmen nodded, and we walked out. My eyes started watering as soon   
  
as we got out into the sunlight; it was a bright day, and I'd   
  
forgotten my sunglasses. It wouldn't usually bother me, but my   
  
eyes were having a hard time adjusting from the extreme dark of   
  
the happy hentai hut. We all stood in the doorway for a minute,   
  
blinking stupidly.   
  
When I could finally see again, I looked up at Carmen. Damnit, I   
  
hate being short sometimes. "Where to now?"   
  
"Back to my place." She took off walking at a ground eating pace.   
  
Wufei and I had to hurry to catch up with her; her legs were a lot   
  
longer than ours. It was kind of annoying. I felt like a little   
  
kid hurrying after his big sister or something...except no way   
  
could Carmen ever be mistaken as any big sister of mine. At least   
  
I hoped not.   
  
"Forgive me if the idea makes me nervous, Carmen." Come in to my   
  
parlor, said the spider to the fly...  
  
Carmen shrugged easily. Cars on the street were slowing down, and   
  
I could see drivers craning their necks so that they could look at   
  
her. So much for not attracting attention. "If it makes you feel   
  
any better, we won't actually be going up to my apartment. What   
  
we're interested in is in the back plaza."  
  
"And that is?"  
  
"The apartment building belongs to my coven. It's built over our   
  
place of power." She said.  
  
Place of power. Great. What a lovely day to get stuck in the   
  
middle of an RPG.  
  
* * *  
  
I had to say one thing--the place of power that Carmen had been   
  
talking about didn't quite fit my expectations. It was a tiny   
  
courtyard with one tree, a cherry tree that was just turning   
  
green with leaves. Under it sat a stone picnic table. The table   
  
had a brown-stained yellow and white beach umbrella sticking out   
  
of its center. There was a plastic bird bath, filled with slimy   
  
green algae.   
  
I admit it, I've read too many fantasy manga. I'd been expecting   
  
something a lot more, well...grand. Maybe a grove of trees. Or a   
  
big stone alter. At the least, no cheesy umbrellas. Welcome to the   
  
world of the supernatural, Duo. Expect the unexpected.  
  
"Sit down." Carmen pointed at the picnic table. "I've got to grab   
  
a couple things from my apartment. I'll be right back." She didn't   
  
wait to see if we had any objections.  
  
I looked at Wufei. Wufei looked at me. I shrugged and sat down at   
  
the table, and he sat next to me. The stone bench was very chilly.   
  
I wished that my coat was as long as Wufei's; it would look pretty   
  
silly on me, but at least my butt would be warm. I hate being   
  
skinny, almost as much as I hate being short.   
  
For a long moment, Wufei and I silently contemplated the top of   
  
the stone table. At first glance, I'd thought it was smooth and   
  
highly polished, but after closer examination, I could see scrape   
  
marks, little pits, and thin gashes on its surface. It was an old   
  
table.  
  
Wufei gently ran his fingers over the surface. "These were caused   
  
by knives," he said.   
  
I raised my eyebrows and touched the table top as well. It felt   
  
strange under my fingers, very warm and welcoming in its own way.   
  
The hair on my arms stood on end. I had a feeling that the table   
  
was what Carmen had been talking about when she'd said "place of   
  
power." Stranger things had happened.  
  
"I see you've made friends."  
  
I snatched my hand away and glanced back at Carmen, suddenly   
  
feeling like a kid that's been caught with his hand in someone   
  
else's pocket. This wasn't an uncommon occurrence for me. "Made   
  
friends with who?"  
  
"Fenoko Asztal." Carmen sat down.  
  
"Uh huh." I nodded like I actually had a clue.   
  
Carmen just raised an eyebrow. "Fenoko Asztal is the power base   
  
for this coven." She sat down at the table opposite from us,   
  
setting a light blue duffel bag on top of it, and patted the table   
  
top affectionately with one hand. "If a coven's power base is old   
  
enough, it acquires a personality and   
  
sentience all its own. It must like you, because otherwise, you   
  
wouldn't look nearly as comfortable."  
  
So the table liked me. Thrilling.  
  
Carmen unzipped the duffel bag and pulled out a few things that   
  
I'd never seen stored in a duffel bag before; a stone bowl, a jar   
  
of something that looked like potpourri and smelled kind of like a   
  
pizza, a green plastic bottle of what looked like water, and an   
  
eight inch long butcher knife. I raised my eyebrows at that one,   
  
suddenly feeling a tad more nervous. Carmen favored me with a   
  
dazzling smile. I wasn't impressed.   
  
"What are you doing?" I asked. She didn't answer me.  
  
Carmen picked up the knife and sliced her palm open. Wufei and I   
  
sat in stunned silence for a moment. We hadn't been expecting that.   
  
Finally, Wufei said, "Woman, what are you DOING?"  
  
"What you wanted me to do. Power costs. I'm paying the price." The   
  
knife made a faint chiming noise when she set it down. Blood   
  
flowed up quickly through the large cut and pooled quickly in her   
  
palm before she turned it over and slapped her hand down on the   
  
table. I winced. That was kind of gross.  
  
Not that I had a lot of room to talk, considering last night I'd   
  
been letting a corpse lick off my fingers. Who knew how many germs   
  
there had been in his mouth...  
  
Wufei managed to maintain expressionless, but he did twitch when   
  
she picked her hand back up. There was a perfect hand print on the   
  
table, and her hand was crimson with blood. But there wasn't a cut   
  
on her palm any more. I blinked. No. Wasn't going to ask. Waaaay   
  
to weird for this little Gundam Pilot. The blood soaked into the   
  
table like water into parched dirt.  
  
Okay, I asked anyway. "What the hell?" I couldn't help myself.  
  
She raised an eyebrow at me. "Magic."  
  
Oh. Of course. Silly me. Yeah.  
  
"Do you have a focus for me?" she asked.  
  
"A what?" I asked right back. She let out a long suffering sigh. I   
  
didn't feel in the least bit sympathetic. "I must have been absent   
  
the day they taught that in school."  
  
Wufei kicked me under the table. I ignored him.  
  
"A focus," Carmen explained with exaggerated patience, "is an   
  
object belonging to one of the vampire's victims that I can get an   
  
impression from."  
  
"Yeah, right here." I pulled the nasty, bloody little bundle of   
  
hair out of my pocket and handed it to her. She raised an eyebrow,   
  
and I shrugged with carelessness I didn't feel. "There's hair from   
  
three people in there. Will that work?"  
  
"Definitely. It's much easier to get a psychic impression from   
  
objects that were once a part of the victim's body... or objects   
  
that are still attached to the body."  
  
Wufei coughed softly. I let it lie. Wisely, so did she.  
  
She untied the white ribbon and separated the locks of hair with   
  
her fingernails, combing through them as best she could, her   
  
efforts a little hampered by the dried blood that coated them.   
  
"These are friends of yours. Close friends," she said, "perhaps   
  
even lovers."  
  
I didn't see the need to answer.   
  
Carmen nodded to herself and picked up the plastic bottle of water.   
  
It took about half the container to fill up the stone bowl. Some   
  
of the potpourri stuff got sprinkled on the water, and on top of   
  
the handprint, and we were set to go. At least I thought so. "Do   
  
you have a particular preference as to who I look for?"  
  
"No," I said. "I imagine they'll all be in the same place...and   
  
the vampires will, as well."  
  
"Very good." Her long fingernails ran over the hair, until she   
  
stopped on her chosen pilot. The hair was blonde. "I get the best   
  
impression from this one. The other two are well hidden,   
  
especially the boy that the brown hair came from. I can barely   
  
feel him at all." For some reason, I wasn't surprised. She stroked   
  
the hair gently. "This one is very beautiful. Loving, deeply   
  
feeling," Carmen smirked, "sensual...I bet he would be a good lay.   
  
Perhaps he'd like handcuffs. A more... dominant one."  
  
I really did NOT need to be hearing this about Quatre. Wufei   
  
coughed again, and I looked at him out of the corner of my eye. He   
  
was looking a little...tense.  
  
"Is he?" Carmen asked.  
  
"What?" I was caught a little off guard.  
  
"Good in bed."  
  
"WHAT?"  
  
Carmen laughed throatily. Great. She was going all creepy again.   
  
"Is he good in bed?"  
  
I gaped. "What makes you think I'D know that?"   
  
"You're very close." She smirked. "I remember him now. He was the   
  
other one you brought when you came to see me. He IS very pretty."  
  
I was NOT liking the way this line of conversation was going. "Hey,   
  
can we just get on with this? Please?" I glanced at Wufei again. A   
  
muscle in his cheek was starting to twitch.  
  
"As you please. I'm going to begin looking now. He is very strong,   
  
so I should be able to find him quickly." She picked up the blonde   
  
hair in one hand, and then stared into the bowl of water. That was   
  
it. No chanting. No sacrificing poultry. No more innuendo. Thank   
  
you God.  
  
Watching Carmen communicate with a bowl of water that had some   
  
bits of greenery floating in it lost its charm very quickly. Wufei   
  
sat by my side, calm now that Carmen had stopped talking about   
  
Quatre's possible sexual habits, and appeared to be half-asleep. I   
  
knew that was deceptive, though. He was alert and ready to go.   
  
An eternity passed. Then another. The third eternity was about   
  
halfway over when Carmen finally moved, sitting up straight and   
  
blinking her eyes rapidly as if she'd just woken up from a nap. "I   
  
found this one," she said without preamble.  
  
"Really? Great. Where?"   
  
Carmen raised her eyebrows. "You want an exact location?"  
  
"That would be nice., I said dryly. "But even a general would   
  
help."  
  
"Northwest."  
  
"A LITTLE more specific would be nice," I said immediately.  
  
Carmen stood up and stretched. Her little teeny t-shirt rode up   
  
and exposed a generous expanse of skinny, smooth stomach. I wasn't   
  
impressed. I had her beat in the abs department, I was sure of it.  
  
"I can't get more specific. What I did gave me a line to the boy   
  
with the blonde hair. I can home in on him, but I don't have a   
  
specific location that I can write on a map, if that's what you   
  
want. I couldn't see well enough. I told you that I'm not that   
  
powerful." She sighed. "I'm going to have to come with you."  
  
None of us were all that thrilled. "Great," I said. "Do you have a   
  
gun or anything you can defend yourself with?"  
  
She shook her head.  
  
Double great. Another back for Wufei and I to watch. Sometimes I   
  
wonder what I did to God to piss him off so much. "Okay, this is   
  
how it's going to work. You're going to stay safely between Wufei   
  
and I, and as soon as we've narrowed it down to a small area,   
  
you're going to go home and let us handle it." I waited for her to   
  
raise objections. She didn't, surprisingly enough. I guess she had   
  
a good self-preservation instinct too. "Are you SURE you can't   
  
just draw us a map or something?"  
  
She shook her head.   
  
Damn.  
  
* * *  
  
About an hour later, we were at the edge of the woods, about a   
  
kilometer south of the cemetery. Carmen had driven us there. We   
  
were just waiting for her to get her bearings so she could lead us   
  
to the vampires. I was really hoping that they'd be close to the   
  
edge of the forest, since we only had about an hour and a half   
  
until full dark. Hell, if I'd had the option, I would have just   
  
put things off until the next day, so we'd have a full day's worth   
  
of light that we could hunt during. I wasn't going to leave the   
  
guys in the clutches of the vampires a moment longer than I had to,   
  
though, and I knew Wufei felt the same. So it was now or never.  
  
Carmen was standing out of earshot, doing some mystical witch crap.   
  
I glanced at Wufei. "You ready for this?"  
  
He nodded. "Yes."  
  
"Think we're going to find them?"  
  
"I hope so."  
  
Silence stretched. I cleared my throat. I was getting nervous.   
  
"And we're going to kill them all, right?"  
  
"If at all possible."  
  
I laughed. "Oh man, we're going to die, aren't we."  
  
Wufei raised an eyebrow. "That's a very probable outcome."  
  
"Wufei! Geeze man, can't you just LIE to me and make me feel   
  
better?" I demanded, exasperated.  
  
"You'd know I was lying, so it wouldn't do any good." Wufei sighed.   
  
"Calm down. Stop thinking about your nervousness and concentrate   
  
on your anger." He seemed to have achieved a state of before   
  
battle calm.   
  
Carmen started waving to us, and we both loped toward her. It   
  
wouldn't do to keep the nice witch waiting. Yeah. The minute we   
  
caught up to her, she turned and started walking through the woods.   
  
Wufei and I came up on either side of her, then slowed to match   
  
her pace. "I've got a direction," was all she said.  
  
We didn't interrupt her. It took her long enough to figure out   
  
which way to go the first time around. God only knew how long it   
  
would take the second time. The woods, to quote one of my favorite   
  
poets, were "quiet dark and deep" and we definitely had miles to   
  
go before we could sleep. Hopefully, it would be the good kind of   
  
sleep, not the eternal kind. The trees were just budding, but the   
  
bare branches above tangled together and formed a canopy so thick   
  
that very little light came through. It smelled like leaf mould   
  
left over from last year, and wet dirt even though the path was   
  
dry. Not really an unpleasant place to take a walk, when you came   
  
down to it. It was too bad we couldn't enjoy it.  
  
We walked and walked, then walked some more. Then did a bit MORE   
  
walking. For what felt like hours, we headed more deeply into the   
  
woods. Carmen would occasionally change direction at times, but we   
  
never slowed. I memorized the way we were going, though I didn't   
  
have a lot of confidence that I'd be able to recognize it if it   
  
were dark and I was being pursued by vampires.   
  
Then again, if I was being chased by vampires, I probably wouldn't   
  
have a chance to make it out of the woods anyway. So I wouldn't   
  
worry about it.   
  
It was full dark and we'd been walking for nearly three hours   
  
before Carmen slowed, then stopped. As far as I could see, there   
  
was nothing special about the section of forest we had stopped in.   
  
There was a tiny, partial clearing where the light of the stars   
  
seeped through. Of course, if the vampires were around, I wasn't   
  
expecting them to have out a welcome mat to let me know.  
  
"This is the area," Carmen said.  
  
"Can you find your way back?" I asked. I took her silence for   
  
assent. "Then head back. We'll search the area ourselves."  
  
That was when they attacked. The hair on the back of my neck stood   
  
on end as I felt a surge of cold, electric power, and that was all   
  
the warning we had. I didn't even have enough time to pull my   
  
cross out. I slammed my shoulder into Carmen, knocking her out of   
  
the way while I went for the Browning with my other hand, just as   
  
a vampire rushed out from between two trees and clotheslined me. I   
  
was turned to the side and off balance, and that was the only   
  
thing that saved me; it hit my shoulder instead of my neck and   
  
sent me flying. I went flying into a tree and my ribs, which still   
  
weren't anywhere near healed, screamed in protest. My arm went   
  
numb. Thank God it wasn't my shooting arm.  
  
Wufei yelled something, and then there was a shriek, but I really   
  
didn't even try to see what was going on. I was too busy trying to   
  
stand up, because I could feel the vampire closing in again. I   
  
launched myself off of the tree. Air rushed by where it barely   
  
missed me with its fist. A hand grabbed my braid and jerked me   
  
back, and I yelped. That HURT! I spun with the pull and brought my   
  
gun to bear, right into the face of one of the female vampires I   
  
recognizedfrom the night Yan died. I didn't stop to think. I   
  
pulled the trigger.  
  
Everything retreated until it seemed far away, slowing down. The   
  
gun kicked in my hands and the vampire's head almost exploded,   
  
black blood and thicker things spraying out the back and across   
  
the waning white disc of the moon. I took a step back, my gun   
  
automatically aiming lower, and I pulled the trigger again,   
  
turning her chest into a ruin of shiny bone splinters and blood.   
  
She fell to her knees, then to the ground, not moving.   
  
Something grabbed me from behind and threw me at the tree again,   
  
and time sped back up. I hit the tree right arm first and both my   
  
arm and the tree let out a loud crack, the branches above me   
  
tilting at a crazy angle. I screamed as everything fuzzed out in a   
  
haze of pain.  
  
When you get hurt, truly hurt badly, like a gunshot wound or a bad   
  
compound fracture (I'm talking blood spurting and bone sticking   
  
out, here) there is a moment of shock while your body tries to   
  
cope with the sudden flood of screaming pain messages from your   
  
nerves, where you can't quite   
  
believe you've been injured. For that instant, everything is   
  
completely colorless and still, and you can't hear anything over   
  
the sound of your own blood in your ears. While I was caught up in   
  
that moment, the vampire that had grabbed me before had me again   
  
and shoved me down against the ground, hard.   
  
My right arm hit the ground and everything resumed its normal pace   
  
as I let out a scream of pure agony.   
  
I'd somehow managed to retain hold on my gun with my left hand,   
  
but unfortunately, my left hand was held against the damp,   
  
clinging leaves by the vampire. It straddled my stomach. I was   
  
well and truly pinned. It reared its head up, and smiled at me.   
  
Victoria.   
  
Wufei yelled again, but the sound retreated from my attention as   
  
Victoria reached her free hand over to my broken arm, grabbed, and   
  
squeezed. My vision whited out for a moment, and I came back to   
  
reality a couple seconds later with my harsh screams echoing in my   
  
ears. Victoria brought her hand up. There was blood shining on it,   
  
and she giggled, smearing the blood on her face and on her nearly   
  
bare chest. She was barely wearing what looked like it had been a   
  
vinyl teddy before it got cut down.   
  
Not that I cared at that point. I was too focused on the fact that   
  
I thought I was going to never stop screaming. Victoria grabbed my   
  
chin and kissed me, and the taste of my own blood was thick in my   
  
mouth. She rolled her hips against mine.   
  
She wasn't going to get a response, I thought happily in a tiny   
  
corner of my mind. My senses were already to overloaded by pain to   
  
be able to feel anything else at all. She seemed to sense this as   
  
well, because she let up and wrenched my head to the side and tore   
  
my shirt open to expose my neck and shoulder. She'd had enough   
  
foreplay, I guess.   
  
I really didn't want to think on what was about to happen. I could   
  
see two blurs in the distance. I idly thought that the light   
  
colored one must be Wufei, which was great since that mean he was   
  
still alive, and then Victoria struck. I'd been expecting her to   
  
go after my neck. Instead, she came down on my collarbone, tearing   
  
my shoulder wide open and snapping the bone like it was a brittle   
  
twig. I screamed again.  
  
Two broken bones, well, actually more than that if you counted the   
  
ribs, in under five minutes. I had a new record.   
  
Victoria sat back up. Her face was covered with blood. She laughed   
  
and shoved her fingers into the tear she'd just made in my   
  
shoulder. I was starting to lose my voice; my screams were getting   
  
very raw. For one blissful moment, she pulled back and the   
  
messages from my nerves quieted to a dull roar. I began sinking   
  
away into shock...  
  
Something rolled into my vision. It was a severed head. It had   
  
fangs.  
  
That was the only warning I had before Victoria threw herself off   
  
of me. She rolled around on the ground, shrieking loudly and   
  
clawing at her chest. Part of a huge knife blade was sticking out   
  
from between her breasts. I saw Wufei, bleeding profusely from a   
  
head wound and from a long, deep gash on his chest pull a knife   
  
out of his sleeve and go after her while I struggled slowly to my   
  
feet. The vampire managed to get to her feet as well, and she   
  
grabbed Wufei as he lunged at her, pulling him tightly against her.   
  
She was a good 15 centimeters taller than him, which is all that   
  
saved his life. The blade when through the upper side of his chest   
  
instead of his heart. He managed to drive his knife into her   
  
stomach before she shoved him away, sending him flying.   
  
I was on my feet by then, and I brought my gun to bear. I could   
  
feel blood running freely down my right arm and side, and the pain   
  
was still jangling through my brain. My blood soaked into the   
  
earth and cold energy surged through me. The pain retreated into   
  
cool, chill calm as the Other I had felt before seemed to roll   
  
over in its sleep, giving me the ghost of its strength. I pulled   
  
the trigger, aiming for Victoria. Three bullets later, there   
  
wasn't anything left that could be identified as a head, and she   
  
was dead.  
  
Score...Wufei one, Duo two, vampires zero. Go us.  
  
I made my way over to where Wufei was laying. We didn't have time   
  
to feel pain. We were still missing two vampires and the master,   
  
not to mention the guys. Wufei was already struggling to his feet,   
  
filling the air with lyrical, pain-filled curses by the time I   
  
made it to him.   
  
I let out a careful sigh of relief that set my ribs off into   
  
another round of shrieks. We only had to find Carmen, who had   
  
gotten out of the way if she was smart, before continuing on. I   
  
looked around. "Carmen?" My voice was barely a whisper. Too much   
  
screaming will do that to you.  
  
"Right here, Duo," she said. She was behind me. "I'm impressed.   
  
You two fight a lot better than we'd anticipated."  
  
"What...?" I was slow, too goddamn slow... Something dark reared   
  
up behind Wufei and grabbed him, stabbing one hand into his   
  
profusely bleeding shoulder. He screamed. I just started to bring   
  
my gun up when someone grabbed me, his - no, her arm snaking   
  
around me.  
  
"Not so fast, honey." Carmen's voice whispered in my ear.  
  
I made a barely audible croaking sound with all that was left of   
  
my voice. Sharp pain lanced through me as a cold knife slid   
  
effortlessly into my back and between my ribs. It quenched the   
  
power coursing through me, shorting it like a wire shoved in an   
  
electrical outlet.  
  
Then there was only darkness. 


	15. Part 14

Acherontia Atropos Part 14  
  
The first thing that I was aware of when I regained consciousness   
  
was pain. Burning, tearing, stabbing pain in my arm, my chest, and   
  
my back. I did my best not to whimper. It didn't matter, though.   
  
My throat felt so raw and torn that I had a feeling I wouldn't be   
  
able to make much noise even if I tried.   
  
The next thing I noticed was the fact that I was laying on the   
  
ground. It was cold and bumpy, and my entire back side was   
  
completely soaked, though how much of it was blood and how much of   
  
it was dew, I had no way of knowing.   
  
I opened my eyes. I was in a clearing of some sort... The stars   
  
shone dimly overhead. The sky was lit from below; I could see   
  
orange light in the edges of my vision. Fire. No, torches. It   
  
didn't make any sense. What were torches doing in the middle of   
  
the forest?  
  
Suddenly, it became very important to sit up. I used my left arm,   
  
the one that didn't feel like it was going to fall off, and pushed   
  
myself up into a sitting position. I found out that I did, indeed,   
  
have some voice left. Pain stabbed through my arm and I whimpered   
  
brokenly despite my best efforts not to. I cradled my right arm in   
  
an attempt to keep it from moving too much. There was something   
  
sharp and white sticking out from the remnants of my blood soaked   
  
shirt about halfway up my upper arm. For some strange reason, I   
  
found it totally fascinating.  
  
It was my bone. Oh God in heaven, part of my bone was sticking out   
  
of my arm.  
  
A horrified little sound turned into a cough in my throat. My   
  
chest hurt, badly, and it took a lot of effort to breathe. My back   
  
felt like it had been torn asunder. I coughed and warm liquid came   
  
up my throat and flowed out of my mouth. I dabbed at it shakily   
  
with my good hand. It was blood.  
  
I'd definitely had better days.   
  
I sucked in a quick breath and went into another round of coughing,   
  
bringing up more blood from my lungs. I could remember the thing   
  
grabbing Wufei, and Carmen grabbing me...and a knife sliding   
  
between my ribs. I had a bad, bad feeling that she had nicked a   
  
lung.  
  
Carmen.  
  
I looked up and immediately wished I hadn't. There were, indeed,   
  
torches surrounding the clearing. The light should have been warm   
  
and comforting. It wasn't, because of what it illuminated.  
  
Wufei was hanging by his wrists from a tree branch, his feet   
  
dangling at least thirty centimeters above the ground. His shirt   
  
was gone, and his pants were looking the worse for wear, candy   
  
striped with blood and dirt. At first, I thought he was dead. His   
  
chest and arms were slick with blood, and he hung silent and still.   
  
Then, very slowly, he pulled his head up to look at me. His eyes   
  
were wide and full of pain. Trowa knelt near him, his arms tied   
  
behind his back to a stake that had been hammered into the ground.   
  
He was stripped from the waist up as well, and his hair was matted   
  
with blood. He watched me with the eyes of the dead. Quatre was   
  
beside him, similarly restrained. His back was a ruin of blood and   
  
strips of dangling skin, as if someone had begun to peel him like   
  
an apple. No sign of Heero.  
  
I closed my eyes, feeling sick to my stomach. I had a feeling that   
  
it had all been arranged for my viewing pleasure while I was out   
  
of it.  
  
"Duo...you're awake at last."  
  
I opened my eyes and looked up. Carmen was standing not a meter   
  
away from me, completely unarmed and smirking. It was easy to tell   
  
that she didn't have any weapons; she wasn't wearing a stitch of   
  
clothing. For once, it didn't bother me, because I was busy   
  
thinking of something else. I was going to kill her.  
  
We were all going to die, I knew it now, but in that case I was   
  
damn well going to take her with me. With a silent growl, I   
  
gathered my strength and threw myself at her. Just centimeters   
  
away, I hit an invisible wall and went crashing to the ground,   
  
broken arm first. The following minutes weren't coherent enough to   
  
remember. Next thing I knew, I was on my feet and straining   
  
against the invisible wall, refusing to acknowledge the pain that   
  
screamed through me. It took a couple of tries, but I managed to   
  
dredge up enough of a voice to whisper, "You're going to die,   
  
Carmen." A few more droplets of blood flowed from between my lips.  
  
Blood. It was all about the power and the blood. That was where   
  
the strength came from.  
  
She laughed at me. Suddenly, Cheree stood beside her, still   
  
wearing her filmy white dress, and she was laughing to, that   
  
annoying high pitched cackle. I snarled.   
  
"Silly boy," Cheree said, "Carmen trapped you in a circle of your   
  
own blood. You can't escape while her power still binds you."  
  
"You'd be amazed at what I can do," I whispered hoarsely.   
  
"Now that you're awake," someone new said, "we can begin the   
  
entertainment."  
  
Entertainment. I really didn't like the sound of that. I snapped   
  
my head around to see who had talked another vampire, a male one   
  
with an impressive mane of black hair, sat on a stone chair that   
  
looked like a throne. I knew he was the Master the instant I saw   
  
him. I could feel it. That wasn't what got my attention, though.   
  
What had me riveted was the fact that Heero sat at his feet like a   
  
trained dog. He even had a dog collar around his neck, which was   
  
attached to a leash that had been nailed to the ground with a   
  
stake. His head was resting in the vampire's lap, and he watched   
  
me blankly, like he couldn't even see me. He was completely and   
  
totally under. The wheel was turning, but the hamster was dead and   
  
buried.  
  
I went cold for a moment, then my anger returned, burning away the   
  
last bits of pain-haze that had been fogging my mind. Suddenly,   
  
nothing existed but me, my adrenalin surge, and the sure knowledge   
  
that I would see them all dead for what they had done.  
  
It must have showed on my face, because the vampire laughed. It   
  
was a nice laugh, I'll admit; warm, rich, and vaguely sexual. I   
  
let it wash over me and ignored it. "Let him go," I hissed.  
  
"You're not exactly in a position to give me orders, pretty one."   
  
The vampire reached down and caressed Heero's cheek. Heero smiled   
  
vacuously. I thought I was going to be sick. "You're at my mercy,   
  
in case you have forgotten."   
  
God, I hate being helpless. I clenched my teeth. "What the hell do   
  
you want?"  
  
The vampire continued to stroke Heeros cheek. His hand slowly   
  
traveled lower, down Heero's neck to run over his chest muscles.   
  
"I like this one," The vampire said. "He smells like you. What did   
  
you do to him, pretty one?"  
  
"Nothing," I said harshly.   
  
The master vampire shook his head. "A lie. You're very powerful, I   
  
can taste it in the back of my mind. Your power intoxicates me."   
  
He smiled lazily. "Perhaps you'd like to tell me why you can look   
  
me in the eye."  
  
I shrugged my good shoulder noncommittally.  
  
Nothing showed in his eyes. "Or you could tell me why I cannot   
  
capture the Chinese boy's eyes either." He raised an eyebrow. "No?   
  
I had hoped you could, though it doesn't matter. I grow bored." He   
  
looked away. "Carmen, come to me please."  
  
She walked over to him, her skin shining pale in the moonlight.   
  
She smiled at me. "Kalin said that we will bring your friend into   
  
the family. Are you happy for him?" She knelt by his side and   
  
rested her cheek on the bit of the vampires lap that Heero wasn't   
  
occupying. One big happy family. Over my dead body.  
  
"I'd blow his head off myself before I'd let you touch him," I   
  
said.   
  
They both ignored me. I hated it when people did that. The vampire   
  
kissed Carmen on the forehead and cupped one of her bare breasts   
  
in his hand. "You did very well, love," he whispered. Gag me.  
  
Carmen smiled. "I am your servant forever." She turned her gaze   
  
toward me, and smirked. "You look bored, Duo."  
  
"Oh, no, I'm fine, don't worry about me," I said.   
  
"We have entertainment planned out. It would be rude of you to not   
  
enjoy it." She giggled. "Except your friends managed to kill Paul,   
  
so that only leaves Cheree to do the entertaining... unless my   
  
love would let me help."   
  
"Of course," he murmured.  
  
I definitely did not want to know. Shit shit shit shit shit.  
  
She said, "Thank you," and stood, moving back toward Wufei, Trowa,   
  
and Quatre. For a long moment, I stayed focused on Heero. I   
  
couldn't help myself. I was scared for him.  
  
Then I heard Wufei curse, and I realized that I should be scared   
  
for all of us. I turned quickly, and was overcome by a wave of   
  
dizziness. I went reeling into the invisible wall. Not good. I was   
  
losing too much blood. Blood brought the power to me, but if I   
  
bled out, nothing could save me.  
  
Quatre yelled, "Trowa!" and I looked up, my right hand sliding   
  
along the barrier, futilely looking for purchase.  
  
Cheree had untied Trowa and had him on the ground. Her hand was   
  
down his pants. For a long moment, he fought back silently, until   
  
she grabbed his chin and forced him to look at her face. He   
  
abruptly went limp, a blissful smile on his lips. Cheree laughed   
  
and grabbed his arm, pulling his shoulder out until the joint   
  
abruptly twisted and I heard a wet pop. That bitch had dislocated   
  
Trowa's shoulder, just like that.  
  
Then came the scariest thing yet. Trowa giggled, like it had felt   
  
good.  
  
There was an incoherent snarl of pure rage, and suddenly Quatre   
  
was on top of Cheree, doing his best to kick her head in. He   
  
wasn't moving very well; he could barely bend his back, and his   
  
arms were still tied, but I would have to give him an 'A' for   
  
effort. I'd never seen Quatre quite that angry before. Wufei   
  
started yelling in Chinese. Whatever he was saying, it didn't   
  
sound very nice.  
  
"Cheree, put the boy under, please," Kalin said.  
  
"As you wish," Cheree said. She grabbed Quatre and slammed him   
  
into the ground, locking eyes with him. He, too, went limp. Wufei   
  
started yelling louder, as Cheree stood and stalked over to him,   
  
leaving Quatre sprawled on the ground like a ragdoll. I don't know   
  
how she did it, but she set her fingers into his shoulders and   
  
ripped downwards, shredding his back as if she'd been tearing with   
  
claws instead of fingernails. Wufei's back arched in an   
  
ineffectual attempt to get away from her, but he didn't make a   
  
sound. Blood splattered down onto Cheree's white dress.  
  
I didn't know whether to cheer for Wufei, or cry.   
  
"You don't look like you're enjoying the entertainment very much,"   
  
Carmen said.  
  
I slowly turned to look at her. She was watching Cheree, and she   
  
looked... excited. She was stroking her breasts slowly with her   
  
hands. I felt sick. "I'm not a psychopath like you," I whispered.  
  
Carmen giggled.  
  
"Why?" I asked with as much force as I could muster.  
  
She glanced back at me. "Why what?"  
  
"Why would you sell out other humans?" The answer seemed important,   
  
somehow. Humans weren't supposed to sell out other humans when   
  
vampires were involved. I was sure it was a rule somewhere.  
  
"Kalin is my master. I am his servant, his eyes during the day,"   
  
she said, smiling. "You should have taken my advice, Duo."   
  
"What advice?" A soft, agonized sound brought my attention back to   
  
the 'entertainment.' Cheree was slowly peeling more skin off of   
  
Wufei's back.   
  
"I told you to contact the Master of the City and lead me to him.   
  
He's the one we want. Though I suppose I shouldn't object." She   
  
licked her lips. "This is more entertaining."  
  
Cheree had obviously grown bored with Wufei, since he was still   
  
refusing to scream. I know I would have been howling by then. She   
  
gouged his back one more time, then slunk back toward Trowa, her   
  
hands dripping blood. "You're a sick bitch, Carmen," I said.   
  
"You're going to get as little mercy from me."  
  
Carmen giggled. "You talk big for a little boy that's going to die.   
  
After we're done with your friends, I'm going to use the circle to   
  
drain you for my master. You should spend your last minutes   
  
worrying about yourself." She walked away from me, to where Quatre   
  
was still sprawled on the ground. He smiled vacantly at her and   
  
struggled up to his knees, willingly falling into her arms and   
  
kissing her.   
  
I have never felt so much disgust before in my life, for myself or   
  
anyone else. One of my friends was hanging from a tree, probably   
  
bleeding to death, another was playing puppy dog for a vampire,   
  
and the other two were about to get raped as I watched.   
  
Carmen started unbuttoning Quatre's pants, and I couldn't take it   
  
any more. I turned toward the master, Kalin. He was watching the   
  
two women with a smile on his face. Rage flooded through me, and   
  
then suddenly, I felt very, very calm.  
  
"You're going to die," I whispered.  
  
Slowly, he turned to look at me. He laughed.  
  
I could feel the corners of my mouth pulling up into a smile.   
  
Abruptly, he stopped laughing like someone had flipped a switch.   
  
"I am the God of Death." I said, very calmly. "And I am going to   
  
be your end."  
  
Kalin stiffened. "What did you say?" he demanded. The clearing   
  
suddenly became very, very still.   
  
"I am the God of Death." I could feel my smile growing. "You   
  
should clean your ears out more often."  
  
It wasn't the thing to say. Kaling stood up, shoving Heero roughly   
  
away. He stalked up to the barrier and reached through--  
  
Learn something new every day. A blood barrier only applied to the   
  
person it was cast on...   
  
--and grabbed my right arm. My vision abruptly whited out, and I   
  
could barely hear him over the roaring of blood in my ears.   
  
"You are not funny in the slightest," he said, "and I think that I   
  
shall have Carmen kill you now." He let go of my arm and I   
  
crumpled into a little heap on the ground. I didn't think I'd be   
  
able to get up again. I dimly saw Kalin walk away, dimly hear him   
  
speaking, but it all retreated into unimportance.  
  
Heero was on the ground across from me, only a few meters away. He   
  
stared blankly at me. Fresh blood ran thickly from my arm, flowing   
  
into the earth, and I fell into Heero's eyes.   
  
I was surrounded with cool, dark water, crackling with the   
  
electric energy that I knew now was always a part of me. It was   
  
night; the power was awake and eager to do whatever I asked of it,   
  
and I could feel Heero's need. There was a glass barrier between   
  
his mind and his body, one that the vampires had put there. He was   
  
trying to break it, pounding at it ineffectually, but he was too   
  
weak. The spark that was Heero wasn't strong enough to go up   
  
against the brighter, further spark that was Kalin.  
  
I whispered, "Help me, Heero." over and over again, like a mantra,   
  
until the glass wall shattered, and he was suddenly on his feet,   
  
grabbing the stake that held his leash. It pulled up easily, and   
  
he threw himself at Kalin.   
  
Time slowed down for me, as Heero charged at Kalin, stake in hand,   
  
and Kalin turned, his expression shocked, then enraged. He was   
  
faster than Heero, and he dodged. Kalin twisted the stake from   
  
Heero's hands and reversed it, slamming it into Heero's chest.  
  
Into his heart.  
  
As I watched Heero crumple to the ground, I could dimly hear   
  
someone screaming hoarsely. I was bemused in a tiny corner of my   
  
mind to discover that it was me.  
  
Then, suddenly, miraculously, I was on my feet and pressing myself   
  
against the invisible wall. "You're dead," I heard myself snarling,   
  
"I'm going to take you to HELL!"  
  
Kalin smiled at me. "Amusing," was all he said, but his eyes were   
  
filled with cold rage. "Carmen, love?"  
  
I glanced over to where Carmen and Quatre were. She had his pants   
  
down around his ankles and her head was in his lap, though she   
  
looked up when Kalin said her name. Quatre was smiling like a   
  
lobotomy patient. I looked away. I didn't want to remember seeing   
  
Quatre like that. I hoped that he wouldn't of be able to remember   
  
what had happened later.  
  
It was kind of funny that I was still thinking in terms of   
  
"later."  
  
Carmen walked up to stand just behind Kalin's elbow. She was   
  
licking her lips and she slowly slid her hands around his waist,   
  
then down to his groin. I felt sick, a real accomplishment   
  
considering how pissed off I was. "Yes?" she purred.  
  
"Our guest is refusing our hospitality," he said, his voice   
  
venemous. "So let's dispense with the pleasantries."  
  
Great. Life couldn't get much worse, though. Heero was dead, Wufei,   
  
Trowa, and Quatre were probably going to be next... who was I to   
  
get left out?   
  
"Thank you," she breathed, and let go of him. I watched her walk   
  
toward me, and suddenly, I was grinning again, and I wasn't even   
  
sure why. "My..." she said, "I haven't even given you something to   
  
smile about yet."  
  
I pushed my hand against the barrier as hard as I could, trying to   
  
find a way out. "Step inside, Carmen, and then I'll really have   
  
something to smile about."  
  
She waggled a finger at me. "Naughty, naughty." Gag me. She   
  
giggled. "I'm going to have fun draining you dry before my master   
  
embraces you."   
  
"Funny. I'm not." Backed away from her slowly. Each step set my   
  
arm burning again. Carmen took a quick trip over to Kalin's chair.   
  
She shuffled around behind it for a moment, then came back out   
  
with a very large, very unfriendly looking black knife, and   
  
something that made my eyes light up - my gun. The only problem   
  
was that she had it and I didn't. Never a good sign.  
  
All I wanted was my gun. I was going to kill them all. Then, it   
  
didn't really matter what happened.  
  
Carmen stopped just outside the boundary of my invisible prison.   
  
She set the gun down on the ground. I had a feeling she was   
  
teasing me. "Come forward," she said, "and put your hand back up   
  
against the circle."  
  
Rule number one when you're being held captive by the servants of   
  
darkness: don't cooperate. Stall. Anything. "Why?" I asked.  
  
Carmen drew the black knife across her breast, leaving a thin,   
  
shallow cut. Blood welled out of it almost immediately, and she   
  
wiped the flat of the blade across the blood. Abruptly, Kalin was   
  
standing beside her. He bent his head and delicately lapped at the   
  
welling blood. Carmen's eyes slipped shut and she panted, mouth   
  
slack.  
  
I wanted to throw up.  
  
Finally, Kalin drew back. Carmen wasn't bleeding any more. She   
  
focused on me again. "To syphon power into my master, there must   
  
be a mixing of my blood and yours. Hold your hand out."  
  
"Let me think about that." I paused. "How's 'no' sound?"  
  
She smirked. "Try again."  
  
I made a big show of thinking. "How about 'fuck you' then?"  
  
Carmen's smile got bigger. "Promise?"  
  
Oh gross...  
  
Kalin laughed. "Give her your hand, or I will have Cheree kill one   
  
of the boys."  
  
My eyes flicked over to Cheree, who was tracing bleeding designs   
  
on Trowa's chest with her fingernails, and Wufei, who was steadily   
  
dripping blood on the ground. Quatre was just laying there, still   
  
smiling, his pants around his ankles. It seemed to me that killing   
  
them outright would be doing them a favor. We were all going to   
  
die tonight, anyway. I might as well try to make it quick. "Go for   
  
it," I said.   
  
I don't think that was the answer they were expecting. There was a   
  
moment of shocked silence before Kalin spoke. "Cheree, release   
  
that boy from your mind."  
  
"Master?"   
  
"Do as I said." He never took his eyes off of me. Trowa suddenly   
  
stiffened, his eyes widening. A soft, pained moan escaped from his   
  
lips as he tried to push Cheree away with the arm that she had   
  
dislocated. I couldn't understand how he could even move, let   
  
alone stay quiet... but then again, it was Trowa. "Carmen, pick up   
  
the boy's gun," Kalin said, "and shoot that young man in the   
  
knee."  
  
Oh God... with the kind of bullets that were loaded in my gun,   
  
Trowa wouldn't have a leg left after he got hit. I licked my lips.   
  
Killing outright was one thing, torturing was another. At least   
  
when the vampires had him under, he wasn't feeling pain. "Let's   
  
not be too hasty. Why don't you just come and get it, huh?" Trowa   
  
was still struggling against Cheree, even though she held him   
  
pinned to the ground with no effort. She seemed to be enjoying   
  
herself.  
  
Carmen picked up the gun. "We're not stupid."  
  
"Could have fooled me," I muttered. "Fuck." I staggered forward   
  
and slammed my hand against the wall. My ribs and my other arm   
  
screeched in protest. Fuck.   
  
"Wise," Kalin said. Carmen put the gun back down. I stared at it   
  
as hard as I could while she came up to the circle and sliced my   
  
palm open with the black knife. It didn't really hurt, compared to   
  
every other injury I had, but there was something wrong with it. I   
  
jerked away, reeling backwards to hit the back wall of the circle.   
  
I slid to my knees, my good arm clutched around my chest.  
  
I was being attacked on a level I couldn't understand; the power   
  
within was being pulled at, and my entire body burned with it. I   
  
pulled my head up in time to see Kalin lick the blade of the knife.  
  
My mouth filled with blood, and suddenly I was face down on the   
  
ground, trying to curl into a little ball as if that would help   
  
the pain. It hurt, oh god, it hurt, on a level beyond just the   
  
physical. The pulling I'd felt before was nothing now. I was being   
  
drained away, bled to death, and every droplet   
  
burned like acid. I couldn't hear anything but my own harsh   
  
breathing. "Help me..." I whispered raggedly. "Help me...God, help   
  
me..." There was no one else to appeal to. Slowly, I rolled to my   
  
side, trying to take some of the pressure off of my lungs. Kalin   
  
and Carmen were on the and seemed to be enjoying themselves a   
  
great deal.   
  
Someone help me...  
  
Help me...  
  
The last reserves of my power flowed out into the ground,   
  
searching. There were Trowa and Wufei and Quatre...there was   
  
Cheree...none of them would help. Cheree was strong, I didn't have   
  
enough power left to take her over or break her hold. Heero...I   
  
couldn't make myself touch Heero. The power ranged further,   
  
stretching itself thinner and thinner as it drained slowly away.  
  
Suddenly, it was there...it had found what I was looking for.   
  
There was a corpse, less than a week old, buried under a tree a   
  
short distance beyond the clearing. Eagerly, the power leapt into   
  
it, filling it up, replacing the vital spark of life with   
  
something darker, and knowledge flooded into me.  
  
"Ayako..." I whispered. "I call you. Come to me, Ayako..."  
  
I opened my eyes, my vision were oddly doubled. My sight dark with   
  
blood loss, but at the same time, I saw what Ayako saw. She was   
  
coming. A pale face wavered up in the darkness; it was Kalin. He   
  
smiled, saying something, but it didn't matter; I couldn't move, I   
  
could barely feel. The only thing I could hear was the sound of my   
  
own heartbeat, and the unhealthy bubbling noise that each breath I   
  
took made. A hand jerked my head roughly back, exposing my neck,   
  
and I coughed more blood out.  
  
It seemed a little funny. I would have thought that after all the   
  
bleeding I'd been doing, I wouldn't have enough blood to be worth   
  
drinking. Obviously, the vampire disagreed. There were lips on my   
  
neck, and the sharp press of pointed teeth. The zombie stood at   
  
the edge of the clearing. She wanted... needed...  
  
I couldn't send her after the vampires. They would rip her apart.   
  
I at least wanted to take one of the bad guys with me.  
  
"Carmen," I whispered, "kill her." Kalin didn't even twitch.   
  
Perhaps he was ignoring me, or maybe he couldn't hear past his own   
  
blood lust. Ayako moved through the trees to the edge of the   
  
clearing, and walked slowly up behind Carmen as Kalin's fangs sank   
  
into my neck. Then she reached and tore into Carmen's throat, and   
  
I could feel the warmth of blood rushing over my hands...  
  
Carmen let out a shrill scream that was abruptly cut off. Kalin   
  
threw me away and turned, one hand clutching his throat. He was   
  
too slow. I felt Ayako's hands pull Carmen's neck apart,   
  
completely severing her head. The force of Kalin's shove sent me   
  
rolling out of the circle; it was gone with Carmen's death.  
  
Power, stronger even than I'd felt the night of Yan's death, tore   
  
through me, filling me until I thought I would burst. I sent it   
  
out into the ground; into Ayako, into Cheree, destroying her hold   
  
on Quatre and Trowa, into anything it could possibly fill. I heard   
  
Wufei yell and Cheree shriek as the power draiined from me like I   
  
was a sieve.  
  
That all retreated into the background as Kalin's hand closed   
  
around my throat. I didn't have the strength to even pretend to   
  
fight back.   
  
"I'll kill you!" Kalin hissed. His hand tightened around my throat,   
  
but it had none of the strength I associated vampires. He seemed   
  
to be having serious problems.  
  
So instead of having my throat neatly crushed, I was going to have   
  
to go through the messy process of being strangled. Wonderful.   
  
With a purely internal sigh, I turned my gaze towards Heero's   
  
corpse. I'd be joining him shortly, it seemed. Black specks began   
  
to dance in front of my eyes.  
  
Heero's shoulder moved. At first, I thought it was a hallucination,   
  
wishful thinking...but no. My eyes widened as he pushed himself up   
  
into a sitting position, then rolled to his feet, the stake still   
  
impaling him. Blood flowed sluggishly down his chest, slick and   
  
black. He staggered a few steps forward, then reached up and   
  
jerked the stake from his chest, almost falling to his knees.  
  
Oh my God... he wasn't dead...  
  
Somehow, I found the strength to reach up and grab Kalin's wrist.   
  
He was still stronger than me, even in his seemingly impaired   
  
state, but I gained enough slack the I managed to pull a small   
  
amount of fresh oxygen into my laboring lungs. Heero was moving   
  
forward again, his face set like stone.   
  
Kalin was so intent on trying to strangle me that he ignored his   
  
surroundings. Heero slammed into him and knocked him away from me.   
  
Kalin yelled loudly as Heero fell on top of him, trapping him face   
  
down against the grass. With a harsh growl, Heero raised the stake   
  
that he still held in his hands and shoved it through the   
  
struggling vampire's back with strength that I hadn't even thought   
  
him capable of, pinning the shrieking monster to the ground. But   
  
it just wasn't enough - the bastard wouldn't die.  
  
Heero had his hands full as it was... I gasped in a breath. "Ayako,   
  
bring me my gun."  
  
Dirty tennis shoes and stained socks appeared in my vision almost   
  
immediately. The scent of week old death shoved itself into my   
  
nose, and a thin, delicate hand that was covered with blood and   
  
had bits of flesh stuck under the fingernails reached down to put   
  
my gun in my hand. It took everything I had, but my hand closed   
  
around it. I lifted my arm a little, leveling the gun at Kalin's   
  
head.   
  
"I am..." I began to say. I was interrupted by a bout of coughing.   
  
More blood. The vampire's struggles suddenly ceased, and he turned   
  
his head to look at me. His eyes were wide, frightened. I tried   
  
again. "I am The God of Death." I croaked.  
  
"No..." he whispered, like I had just claimed to be Satan himself.  
  
"You are dead," I choked out. I emptied the gun into his head and   
  
kept squeezing the trigger even after it clicked empty. When I was   
  
done, there wasn't enough left to fill a sandwich baggy with, and   
  
most of the remains were splattered over Heero and I.  
  
The empty Browning dropped from my hand as sudden peace washed   
  
over me. I couldn't hear Cheree shriek any more, but I could still   
  
hear Wufei cursing, though his voice was calmer. It was over. It   
  
had to be over.   
  
Heero half fell off the corpse, one hand covering the hole in his   
  
chest. He crawled over to me. I dredged up a small smile. "Mission   
  
accomplished," I whispered.  
  
He snorted, and pain flashed over his face for a moment. "How   
  
badly are you hurt?" he asked.  
  
My vision was beginning to white out at the edges. "Hurt?" I asked.   
  
"Who said anything about hurt? I'm just fine...I feel like I could   
  
beat you at a game of basketball now." It was nice that he'd be   
  
around for it. More than nice. The horrible emptiness I'd felt was   
  
gone. "What about you?" I asked.  
  
"I'll live."  
  
I smiled and let my eyes close. "That's good."  
  
"Duo?" I dimly heard Heero say. "Duo?"   
  
It was a nice sound to hear. I carried it with me as I fell into   
  
unconsciousness. I was tired.   
  
It had been a long day. 


	16. Epilogue

Acherontia Atropos: Epilogue  
  
When I woke up, I was in the ICU of the local hospital, along with   
  
Wufei and Trowa. They had both been seriously injured, though not   
  
as badly as me. Wufei had lost a lot of blood, and Victoria had   
  
managed to tear the lining around his lungs when she shoved him   
  
onto his own knife, though at least his internal organs were   
  
intact. Cheree had nearly disemboweled Trowa when they killed her.  
  
I was kind of surprised that Heero and Quatre weren't in with us.   
  
I was even more surprised when Wufei told me that while Heero and   
  
Quatre had both ridden to the hospital with us in the ambulances,   
  
they'd been released as soon as the doctors took a look at them.   
  
Between the two of them, they'd only needed about ten stitches and   
  
some antibiotics. I guess that they weren't hurt as badly as I'd   
  
thought. I must have seen wrong in the torchlight. I was willing   
  
to believe that.  
  
When the three of us compared wounds, the grand total came out to   
  
be something like five operations, over two hundred stitches, and   
  
three casts. I'd been unconscious the longest; almost a week,   
  
while Wufei had been up the whole time and Trowa had come to after   
  
the second day.   
  
The doctors were thrilled that I was finally up and about. They   
  
had a lot of fun telling me what a mess I was when I came in;   
  
punctured lung, comminuted fracture of the humerus, five fractured   
  
ribs, compound fracture of the collar bone coupled with severe   
  
muscle trauma...the list went and on and. It sounded very   
  
impressive. They kept saying that I was lucky to be alive.  
  
They didn't have to tell me. I was well aware of that. Even if I   
  
didn't particularly feel like it, at times.  
  
They kept all three of us for another week and a half. We drove   
  
the hospital staff insane. Wufei's a worse patient than me, if   
  
that's possible. It was almost nice to have the chance to relax,   
  
though; I got to know Wufei all over again, and really got to know   
  
Trowa for the first time. He's got a real good sense of the ironic.  
  
Quatre and Heero came and visited us, though Quatre showed up more   
  
often than Heero. He always snuck us in junk food, and he even   
  
managed to smuggle a six pack of beer past the attendant nurses   
  
once for me. There's a lot to be said for looking innocent.  
  
If he or Trowa can remember what Cheree and Carmen did to them,   
  
they don't say. I try not to bring it up. Heero's still as distant   
  
as ever. The more things change, the more they stay the same.   
  
When we finally got released from the hospital, the nurses threw   
  
us a big party and bought us a cake. It was great. I asked around   
  
until I found out who had called for the ambulances, since I was   
  
pretty sure that none of us had been in any condition to run for   
  
help. It was a woman named Hara. I can't help but wonder why she   
  
did it. I'm not sure I want to know. She must have also done one   
  
hell of a cleanup job, because no one mentioned dead bodies or   
  
anything else that might indicate they'd found the remains of the   
  
vampires and Carmen.  
  
As soon as we left the hospital, we transferred to a new school,   
  
thanks to Heero. When I asked, he said he didn't think I'd be   
  
comfortable in the same school as the students that the vampires   
  
had controlled. It was a surprisingly insightful thing for him to   
  
say. Sometimes I think there's hope for him.  
  
That brings us up to today. So far, things have been normal at the   
  
new school. We've all settled in alright. Wufei's days of wearing   
  
tank tops are over, though, unless he wants everyone to see the   
  
huge mound of scar tissue that he now has on his upper chest. He   
  
also has some really interesting scars on his back now, though   
  
they're not too visible unless you're really. I know for a fact   
  
that Trowa also has a scar across his stomach. We're all in   
  
physical therapy now, and the therapist says that all of us will   
  
regain full use of our various damaged body parts.  
  
Heero's got a surprisingly small pockmark in his chest, right over   
  
his heart, which makes me wonder, sometimes. I try not to think   
  
about it. Quatre managed to get through the entire experience   
  
pretty much unscarred, at least on the physical level. As far as   
  
the mental level goes, I can't say. None of us like to talk about   
  
what happened; I think it shook us all up, and we want to go back   
  
to our quasi-normal lives and forget.  
  
Except for me. I can't forget. Like Wufei, I'm never going to be   
  
able to wear a tank top and look good in it again; I have some   
  
real bad scarring on my collar bone and my right arm, but it's   
  
merely a reflection of the internal stains, I guess you could say.   
  
I still have problems with people touching me, and my   
  
claustrophobia has only gotten worse. Now that I've acknowledged   
  
that the power in me exists, it constantly finds ways to bring my   
  
attention to it, like it's some kind of eager to please kid. On   
  
bad nights, I'll go out to take a walk, and the road kill will get   
  
up and follow me.  
  
At first, when I got out of the hospital, I had nightmares all the   
  
time, and a lot of nights found me knocking on Quatre and Trowa's   
  
room door, because I knew Quatre wouldn't mind sharing his bed   
  
with me, and that is the one time that physical contact doesn't   
  
freak me out. It's something I have to deal with, just like being   
  
a Gundam Pilot. I've accepted that, now, and the nightmares aren't   
  
as bad any more. I am The God of Death. I can't escape that.  
  
A month after we transferred to the new school, I went to one of   
  
the old libraries in Tokyo, one that had a lot of really old books   
  
from all over the world. I spent several days wandering the dusty   
  
stacks, but I eventually found at least a few answers about   
  
vampires and witches, as well as a little elementary info on what   
  
we might possibly run into in the future if our world tries to   
  
turn itself upside down again. I hope that I'll never need it,   
  
though. The first time around was bad enough.  
  
I also found a few sketchy, incomplete details that gave me some   
  
answers I'd been craving; answers about me. Tamlin had called my   
  
ability an "affinity for the dead." It didn't ring true, though, I   
  
knew it. I found the beginning of the answer in a thin, tiny book   
  
that had gotten jammed between the pages of a larger reference   
  
tome. I walked out of the library with it tucked inside my long-  
  
sleeved shirt. No one ever noticed.  
  
The tiny, insignificant looking book gave me a name for what I am.  
  
I am the God of Death.  
  
I am a Necromancer. 


End file.
